No Turning Back
by Misery Severity
Summary: AU. Amy Rose runs away from home to escape her abusive stepmother. With no place to go or stay, she lives her life as a homeless runaway youth. Rated M for Child and Parental Abuse, Profanity and other future Adult Themes.
1. Leaving

**All Sonic Characters Belong to SEGA.**

 **The whole story is in Amy's POV. Should I continue?**

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Leaving

I don't even know where my destination is going to be. But I can't stay home anymore. I just can't.

A few years ago, my mother passed away and my father married this whore of a hedgehog named Lauren. He forced me to call her my new "stepmom" but that's never going to happen and it never will. Why?

Because this sky-blue, brown-eyed hedgehog, Lauren, is an abusive piece of shit.

Every night and day ever since my dad married her, Lauren has been abusing me, both physically and emotionally, over every little thing for no reason. I don't even know what her freaking problem is. She yells at me for not doing what she told me to do and if I "give her the attitude," she would beat me mercilessly until I'm on the floor, crying in agony. And whenever my dad is not around, Lauren would glare at me, call me a "bitch" over and over again, and then she would go too far into saying that "I am nothing but a piece of shit lying on the floor who will have nothing to live for in the future."

The worst part—Lauren threatened me several times that if I tell Daddy about what happened to me—all covered with bruises and a black eye—she would still beat me more if I snitch on her. She forced me to say to him that "I'm so clumsy and I keep falling down the stairs." That's not even true! And with that, Lauren would lie to him that she has never laid a hand on me… and he believed her!

I seriously can't take this. I really hate that stepmom of mines. I want to leave home.

But the problem is that I'm only sixteen years old. I cannot live alone by myself due to being a minor. I can't even find a job myself or continue my education. What someone would want to hire a small, beat-up hedgehog that looked like she was living on the dirt? And I dropped out of high school because I can't focus properly on my courses and I'm too scared to admit to any of my friends, teachers and the school counselors about what I'm going through. If any of them find out, Lauren would hurt me more. They might arrest her—I hope so—but they may also arrest my father for child negligence (and in case you're wondering, Daddy has been neglecting me as well). If both of them ended up in jail for who knows how long, I might end up in foster care.

There's no way I'm going to any foster home. There's no way I'm temporarily—or permanently, whichever comes first—staying in a home with a bunch of foster kids whom I don't even know. Every one of them would be terrible strangers to me. And what if they send me under custody of more abusive foster parents?

This is really something I do not want to happen… ever.

Right now, I'm in the bathroom, leaning my front body against the sink and staring straight at the mirror. My reflection is horrendous. There are dark circles underneath my eyes and countless bruises on my face from where Lauren had beaten me in the past. My pink quills are severely unkempt; my severe depression intervene me from washing myself properly. I sob at myself. I look so horrible, I want to die.

"Please, let it end. Let it end." I silently weep those words, almost into a prayer. I repeat it over again, "Please, let it end. Let it end." My voice breaks throughout the prayer.

Out of impetuousness, I grab a pair of metal scissors sitting on the corner of the sink. Then, out of both anger and sadness, I grab a lock of my quills, nearly tugging them from my scalp, and then I open the scissors over them. I snip them and then I repeat with the rest of my quills, one strand at a time. I listen to the sound of scissors snipping and I watch the locks of my quills raining down inside the sink. I keep on going and going until there is nothing left.

When I'm done, I drop the scissors on the floor, causing a loud clank sound. I stare at my reflection again. With more tears pouring down my hysterical eyes, I gaze at my new hair. It went from my waists to all the way up to my shoulders; it's now in some kind of an edgy pixie cut. I've learned somewhere that many girls, who were raped, brutally beaten or just going through a manic phase, cut their hair like this as some sort of way to cut off their horrid memories and then move on to their new change.

I still don't feel any changes yet, but hopefully in time, the past will go away and I can move on.

Getting the audacity I have, I quickly run into my room before Dad gets back from work and Lauren returns home from wherever she is. I open my closet, take out my backpack and start shoving my clothes and everything else I needed to carry for my runaway. When the pack is full, I zip them shut, struggling to close it due to its fullness. I put on a white T-shirt, a black hoodie, a pair of blue acid-wash jeans and then my white sneakers. I strap my pink and black backpack over my back and I leave my room.

Right before I leave the house, I sneak into Dad's and Lauren's room. I go into the vanity; sitting on top of it is Lauren's hinged wood box where she keeps all her money and several drugs she's been hiding from us. I open it. I disregard the pills and heroin inside and just take a handful of money that she probably made from selling them. Lauren has over hundreds of dollars in there. Without even counting them, I just take as much 20s and singles as I can and then stuff them into my pockets.

Now, with the clothes and necessities on my back and hopefully some enough cash to keep me alive, I run out of their bedroom. I run through the second-floor corridor, down the stairs and then to the front door.

Just when I was about to touch the doorknob, the door is already being unlocked by somebody from the outside. The door nearly hit my face when it opens and there she stood.

"Where do you think you're going, Amy Rose?" Lauren scolds at me. I stood silent, trying to fight off the upcoming fear. "And what the hell did you do to your hair?"

"It's none of your fucking business, Lauren!" I finally snarl at her. I can still feel the fear. "I don't need to tell you where I'm going!" I try to run pass through her, but she stop me, sending me back inside with so much force.

"Don't you talk back at me like that! That is not how you treat your mother! What would your father think about this?"

"You're not my mother! What kind of stepmother would beat me 24/7 and then lie to my dad?! It's really your fault that I'm going through hell for all these years!" I push her back and she retaliates again.

Our battle begins when Lauren drops her bag and then she pushes me hard until I fell back on the hardwood floor. She begins to tackle me and then punch me. Her hits and blows are so hard, I feel like that not only she's bruising my skin, she's also breaking my bones. My screams and cries are mixed with her screams full of harsh profanity.

"You little bitch!" Lauren shrieks at the top of her lungs.

Using all the strength I have, I get up and then push her out of the way. I shove her against the wall, causing the picture frames to clatter before they detach themselves from their nails and fall to the floor. The sounds of the frames breaking apart and its glass shattering are heard. When she gets down with her back still leaning against the wall, Lauren screams some more when I begin to impulsively hit her for retaliation. More screaming and cursing is audible.

Before I lose all of my energy, I get up from her and face back to run to the opened front door. I can feel Lauren crawling up to me in her own pace, "Get back here!" She grabs my ankle.

She pulls back, trying to get me to fall back on the floor again. Although, I'm lucky enough to kick her back before I hit my face down. She shrieks again when I kicked her, giving me enough time to run out before she catches me. Lauren sounds like she's in pain, but I don't even care about that anymore. She got what she deserved.

I finally made it to the doorway. I turn back to face Lauren for a mere moment to take one last look of her. I cry out to her, with full anger and sadness, "And just so you know, I'm leaving home! Tell Dad to don't bother looking for me because I'd rather die on the street than to be found and be neglected and beaten some more!" I wipe the tears out of my eyes and then turn back around.

I grabbed to door and slam it shut, without even saying goodbye to her. I'm not sure if what I said was true about me wanting to die on the street.

I ran down the concrete walkway all the way to the sidewalk. After only a few feet away, the door opens again.

"Good riddance to you, you little piece of shit!" Lauren shouts at me with mutual anger. I still didn't look back at her and I'm trying to ignore her. "I hope you die!" She slams the door shut.

I heard everything she said. Why would an adult like her call a child like that? That counts as child abuse.

I don't even care anymore. I just want to find a place to stay for a while. I just want to be away from Dad and Lauren.

I still don't know where I'm going albeit I hope I find a way. Just as long as I don't have to go back.

Even though my destination is still unknown, this is where my journey begins.


	2. Calling

**A/N: Confession to make: Lauren is really the name of one of my abusive cousins in real life whom I'm currently disowning and estranging myself from, along with the other relatives in my mom's side. I've decided to use her name for some reason that I can't explain much.**

 **Anyway, enjoy.**

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Calling

It's autumn right here and the weather is getting a little cold. The sky is all cloudy with little openings for the sun to shoot its rays, though not warm and sunny enough. The air has a very dampening scent from the rain last night. The concrete ground and fallen leaves are moist. I really like the scent of wet leaves flowing in my air but at the same time, it causes me allergies.

I sniff and sneeze when breathing the damp autumn air. I wipe my face and nose with the back of my hoodie's sleeve. I'm not sure if it's tears from my allergies—or from my last battle with Lauren.

Time passes by; it's been two hours since I left my home. I must've walked miles from my former house already.

I'm now in a suburban area. I'm familiar with this place because this is where I used to hang out with my friends. Nostalgia came up into my mind when I started thinking about my friends. The way we hang out at Starbucks before, after and in between classes, before I became a high school dropout, and me always ordering a vanilla latte; we chat and chat, laughter filling up the coffee shop. We even go from store to store and shop around a little for snacks, our favorite desserts and other things.

The memory made me smile. However, my smile is evanescent. Sadness intervenes again. The truth is I stopped hanging out with them ever since Lauren came into the picture. I had no audacity to tell them about her because—you know. Lauren even isolated me from my own friends for no reason. Because of her, I couldn't be around with them anymore. I can't show up to them with bruises and cuts on my skin and my bones nearly broken from her abuse.

I honestly don't remember when the last time I saw them was. It was such a long time to me. Lauren must've blown away my memories. I stopped going to their houses and I, out of impetuous choice, removed all of their contacts from my phone, all without letting them know. Speaking of which, I do have my cell phone with me but I don't know where I should recharge it. The battery is low and I can't find an available outlet somewhere in the neighborhood.

There are payphones in this area, but who uses them anymore? Maybe I should give one a try.

I walk to the nearest convenience store with one payphone just standing right outside of its front entrance. Before I try to make a call, I enter the store. The bell rings when I step through the door. The inside is full of cheap snacks and drinks, the walls are in an ugly shade of blue-grey and the floor tiles are covered with dirt from the outside. I walk to the refrigerator, opened it and took out a bottle of soda before closing it. Then I grab a pack of mini cakes from one of its shelves.

I pay for them and I ask the cashier behind the counter for change. I was given some quarters after handing in the bill. Plus, some couple extra quarters from the change I got back for paying my snack. That's six quarters total. I exit the store and that annoying bell rings.

I head to the payphone. It costs 25 cents per call. I pull my backpack off one side for a moment so I can reach for something. I remember carrying a small pink address book with me, all filled with phone numbers just in case. I took it out and open it, flipping through pages.

The first number that came to me is Cream the Rabbit—my best friend. I took the phone off the receiver and put in a quarter. The droning sound is heard. I then dial Cream's number. I hear the other end ring a few times.

"Hello?" Cream answers. "Who is this?"

"Cream?" I say, though very weakly and my voice is breaking. It's been a long time. Either my voice is persistent with its sadness or that I'm too nervous to speak to her. "Cream, it's me. Amy."

"Amy? Amy Rose?" Cream sounded surprised when she heard me.

"Yes," I reply. She became silent.

"So, you decided to talk to me now?" I can't even tell if she's mad at me for leaving her without letting her know. It's weird because she's never been mad at anything before. I remember she's always so calm and coy.

I sigh, "It's complicated. Cream, please listen to me. I know what I did was wrong, but—"

"The way you left me and everyone else without saying a word was pretty rude. I thought it was a sign that you didn't want to be friends with me anymore. That was really wrong." Cream is getting pissed off now. "If you didn't want to be with me anymore, all you have to do is say so. You don't have to keep it to yourself. But leaving me and the girls all alone and ignoring us while saying nothing was just plain awful."

Cream is starting to make me feel guilty now. I try to explain, but her exclamation is causing me more pain. Instead of explaining it, I cry out, "Cream! I'm sorry, okay?"

"That doesn't sound like you are. Do you even know how disheartened we were when you left us?" More guilt.

I stammer a little before changing the subject. I try to hold back my sob, "Please, just listen to me, Cream. There's something I need to tell you."

She sighs, sounding exasperated. "What?"

I take a deep breath, "Like I mentioned before, it's complicated." I pause. "I was wondering if—even though you're mad at me—if I can stay over at your place for a while." She's silent for a second.

"Why?"

"I can't tell, but—"

"Sorry," Cream cuts me off, "I can't let you. Bye."

"Cream, wait—"She hangs up on me. The dial tone appears.

I hang the phone back on the receiver. I can't believe my best friend—my ex-best friend—became mad at me like this just for leaving her. I try to wash the thoughts of her away as I take my book out again and go through the phone numbers.

There's another one: Blaze the Cat. I take the phone back, inserted another quarter and dial Blaze's number.

The other end rings and Blaze answers. "Hello?"

"Blaze?" I remark, still feeling meek. "It's Amy. Amy Rose." She's silent. "Do you remember me?"

Blaze is still silent until she finally remarks, "Oh, it's you."

Our talk is the same I just had with Cream. Then, I ask her, "Is it okay if I stay over at your place?" The answer…

"Sorry, Amy. But you're not welcome here." She hangs up. The dial tone sounds.

I repeat the whole thing. I dial another number.

"Tikal?" Tikal the Echidna answers and then she said that I can't stay at her place. She hanged up on me.

Another number.

"Rouge?" Rouge the Bat rejected me as well. She hanged up on me.

Then another.

"Mina?" Mina the Mongoose says no before hanging up. This is getting more frustrating.

I'm down to my last quarter. I insert it into the slot. Finally, I dial one last number. The other end rings until…

"Yeah?"

"Rosy?" I don't even know what I was thinking about calling someone I like and hate at the same time (she's more of a frenemy to me).

"Amy Rose?" Rosy the Rascal sounded typically rude. She's my only hope despite that we only hate each other on occasional times.

"Y-yes." With my voice breaking into sadness, I ask her if I can stay over at her place.

Of course—she didn't say anything… and then hang up.

Getting really aggravated with every one of them, I hang the phone on the receiver with full force, entirely pissed off. Every one of my ex friends—and frenemy—have rejected me. Was it really wrong of me to leave them like that? Why didn't I have the audacity to tell them the truth about me and Lauren? They would've helped me but after this whole incident, they won't.

I rest my crossed arms and head down on the payphone. I sob hysterically against the public device that no one uses anymore. With everyone I used to know rejecting me, I now have no place to go. I stood there for a longer moment, so I can let it all out.

Grabbing my backpack and my plastic bag of brought-snacks, I leave the convenience store. I have never been this agonized before in my life. Tears continue to pour out of my eyes. I use my black sleeves to wipe them away.

As I fast-walk away in fury and despair, I think about all of their reactions when they first talked to me over the phone and it's hard to get them out of my head. I can picture all of their faces of what they would look like if we see face to face. Anger that I don't even know what for.

I try to drown their images off my mind by drinking the soda I purchased. The hissing appears when I twist the cap off and I take a large gulp of the soft beverage. The chill and bubbles burn my throat when I swallow. I close the bottle. I wipe my mouth with my sleeve. It didn't help much; the images are still there.

I resume my walk through the suburban area, hoping to look for a temporary place to stay. No parents, no friends—the journey on foot is only me. I'm all alone.

I still don't know where to go. I guess for now, I have to sit and sleep right on the streets.


	3. Moving

Moving

I lost count of how many hours passed by and how many miles I've wandered around. I've looked from place to place, trying to find a spot to rest or something. The suburbs have nothing for me anymore, so I left and kept on wandering away.

As I was walking, I look up at the sky. I realized that it's getting dark soon. My phone already died and I still can't find an outlet to charge it. I can't find out the time or call my Dad. It's also getting colder. I pull my hood up over my head and huddle myself in this hoodie. It's not going to be warm enough, but it'll have to do for now. I hope.

I already ate my snacks that I bought from the store. It's barely enough for me. I don't have that much on me now. I just remember something; before I left the house and during our physical fight, Lauren must've found out that I stole from her and she probably took some of her money back from my pockets and left me only a 20 and singles. I was wondering why it feels less. I spent most of it all on small foods and nothing else. Now, I'm left with a 10 and very few singles. There's no way I can survive with this amount of cash.

Feeling lost in my trail of thoughts and thinking about what I should do with the limited cash I have, I notice a train station up ahead. What if I take a public train ride somewhere far away? Should I use some of my cash to pay for the fare?

One side is telling me I should while the other is telling me I shouldn't. I could save money and sneak a free ride by crawling underneath the turnstile. I can do that since I'm small for my age. The only problem is that I can get caught easily. If they catch me sneaking into the station without paying, they may arrest me. This thinking about breaking the law is sending me an adrenaline rush. Simultaneously, it will ruin me forever if I performed such a delinquent act. I don't want to be under handcuffs and be seen in a police car. It'll haunt me.

I enter the train station anyway. The fare costs 2 dollars and 75 cents for one ride—25 cents more than the last time. Are they fucking kidding me? There's no way I'm wasting that amount of money for a train ride. Then again, I need to get away from this area; I want to make sure I'm over 100 miles away so it'll be impossible for Dad and Lauren to find me. Looks like I'm going to have to make a sacrifice on my money.

I walk to the booth where public train passes are sold. The guy—some kind of rodent species—behind the glass sees me and speaks through the speaker. He asks, "Can I help you?"

I answer, "I just need one ride." I pull out my cash. I handed him my 10 dollar bill through that little silver tunnel underneath the glass where the money and passes go. He looks at me, like he's seeing a runaway child.

He seems concerned, "And just where are you going? Aren't you a little young to be taking the train all by yourself?"

I'm a little offended that he called me a child. I'm sixteen years old and stuck in a body of a twelve-year-old—I mean that metaphorically, of course.

I tell him, "Don't worry, I'm really sixteen. I'm just going anywhere where the train takes me." Before he hands me the pass, I ask him, "Do you know where the trains stop?"

He informs me that both trains stop at two different locations that I'd rather not specify their names since it's not important to me. I don't even care if I'm going to a desert or a different country. All it matters to me is the faraway distance.

Then, I say, "I guess I'm heading there."

He gives me the pass and my change. I take them from the little tunnel. He tells me, "Just be careful."

I thank him and then left the booth. I walk to the turnstiles, swipe my pass over it, and push myself through it.

The train ride feels like forever. I'm sitting on one of the seats next to the window, leaning my head against it and cuddling my backpack on my lap, closer to my front body. I depressingly gaze through the view; the sun turns orange as it goes down and the skies are getting darker. All I can hear are voices from Lauren and my ex-friends. I keep thinking about those angry words they have said to me. It's giving me a hard time muffling myself from their voices; the more I hear them, the more disheartened I become.

I shed a single teardrop as I continue to stare through the train's window and thinking about them. Suddenly, I can feel the fatigue coming in. I close my eyes to rest them even though I couldn't sleep in the train when it's still moving and when there are others around having incoherent conversations and making noises. I'll just sit in my seat and keep my eyes shut until we get to the very last stop.

Later, I can feel the train coming to a full end. The doors are wide open for a long time and the train is just sitting idly on the tracks. I woke up from my very short doze—not sure how long I've been asleep though—and then lazily glance around to see that the train car is completely empty. I'm the only one here now. I guess this is the final stop.

Before the doors close, I grab my things, get up from the seat and then hurry out of the train. I made it through.

I exit the train station and make my way to an unfamiliar neighborhood. It's already dark out and the streetlights shine bright throughout the streets. I can barely see what the buildings look like, but underneath the lights, I can see that this place is completely empty of people.

"Where the hell am I?" I say to myself as I glance around in the dark.

I can hear sirens, dogs barking and cars passing by. By the sounds of the sirens, something tells me that this place isn't as good as I hoped to be. I can't take the train ride back to where I was before. Looks like I'm spending the night here for a while.

I stroll through the unfamiliar streets. My stomach grumbles in hunger and I rub it to ease it down. I can't afford restaurants, especially cheap fast foods, and many stores are closed at this time. The only food I have left is this last piece of mini vanilla cake I've been saving and a bottle of water I bought way before I came to the train station. I remove the wrapper and devour my cake. Once it's done, I take my water and gulp it down, saving the rest for future needs. I drop the wrapper on the ground as the night breeze takes it away and I move on.

Hunger keeps interfering with me during my long walk. Every few yards or so whenever I see them, I go through the garbage cans, open up the bags and then rummage through for some discarded food to eat from. I know it's really gross; however, it's the only way for me to survive with very little money and to ease the hunger. I found a half eaten hot dog and a half eaten sub sandwich that I'm too reckless to know what's inside. I stuff them into my mouth, eating them whole.

So this is what eating like a homeless youth feels like. It's disgusting. They could have fallen on the ground before they get thrown away, though I didn't have a choice.

Both foods are gone and I take another sip of my water to wash it all down before putting the bottle back into my backpack. I'm not full enough but not starving anymore. With a bit of luck, it'll probably pull me through until the next morning. With my "dinner" done, I continue to walk through the dark streets.

I've walked for hours already. It's getting colder and I huddle myself tighter into my hoodie to keep warmth. I still don't know what time is it now. I'm feeling really tired; I need to get some sleep. All the streets and alleys are way too dirty and disgusting for me to sleep on. And besides, the autumn coldness will worsen if I sleep on a contaminated ground.

I stop for a while. I look down at the line of cars sitting parallel parked against the curb. It makes me think that I can find temporary shelter in one of these. It may be crazy and illegal to break into somebody else's car. I have another thought of adrenaline rush and this time, I decide to follow my instincts.

I run to the first car I see and then I pull on its door handle on the driver's side. It's locked. I go to the next one. It's locked as well. I go to the third, then fourth and now the fifth. They're all locked. I make my way to the sixth car. I pull on its handle—and it's unlocked!

I opened the unlocked car door, climb in to the driver's seat and closed the door before locking it. I climb to the back seat, setting my backpack on one end as I sit down on the other end. I curled myself into a fetal position whilst simultaneously lying down and hiding myself in the dark to make sure no one sees me as I sleep here for the night.

I close my eyes and try to go to sleep. My hoodie is my only blanket and my pillow is just the car seat. It's hard for me to sleep because of the cold air and the car seat's uncomfortable cushions.

Mostly—it's because of that recurring horror and hellish nightmare I'm now having of Lauren's abuse and my ex-friends' rejection.


	4. Screaming

**WARNING: Rape scene at the end. Not too graphic though.**

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Screaming

I woke up when I feel the warmth on my face. I lethargically look up to one of the windows. The sun is out and it's peaking from one of the large clouds flowing through the sky. Judging by the shade of the sunrays' golden color, it must be early morning or something. I should be getting out of this car before its owner comes by and then kick me out.

First, I make sure I have all of my stuff on me. Then, I check my leftover cash. I do have everything, which is good. I quickly strap my backpack over my back and then exit the car. I run off to make another escape before anyone catches me trespassing and breaking in to a vehicle.

I pull my hood over my head. I honestly don't want to be seen by the inhabitants in this neighborhood. I'm already scared of where I am now. I'm truly afraid of what they would do to me. I walk to a random direction; it was really stupid of me to come in to this location that I don't even know of. I just follow my own instincts to wander around this place; don't know what's wrong with me.

I continue my runaway journey. During my stroll, I look around the neighborhood for a nearby mini store. I can feel my stomach growling of near hunger and I realized that I needed to use the bathroom. I just hope that I can get whatever that's fewer than 10 dollars and someone would allow me to use their restroom. I keep looking around; I feel like a total lost traveler.

It literally took me about half an hour to search for a convenience store. I finally found one. I step through the door and a bell tone is heard as I enter. I walk to the cashier; he's a wolf hybrid. He looks at me as I ask him, "Do you have a restroom here?"

He answers, "The bathroom is for paying customers only, young lady."

Of course; typical. I sigh, "Well, I would like to order something then." I need to order something to eat anyway. I take my money out of my pocket and then count the cash before looking back up at him. "What do you have that's fewer than 10 dollars?" I have to conserve the rest with what I have left.

The wolf shows me the menu up above the counter. It's a list of all the sandwiches, burritos and salads they make. I take a quick look at their prices; each ingredient they put in there varies. I didn't feel like reading them because the prices depress me. I just told him, "Just give me the cheapest you have."

"Would you like a breakfast burrito then?" The wolf offers. "Every breakfast burrito costs 3 dollars." I approve reluctantly.

I look down at the counter and below it is some kind of refrigerator that contains numerous drinks: soda cans, juice bottles, sports drinks and of course water. I pull out a large bottle of water and then set it on the counter. I tell the cashier, "And this bottle of water, too. How much is it?"

He told me the price of the water. The total of it and the burrito is 4 dollars and 75 cents. I pay it with a 5 and he gave me a change with one quarter. I thank him.

"Your burrito will be done shortly." He says.

"As I wait, may I use your restroom now?" I ask meekly. He nods his head and points me to where the bathroom is. I make my way there.

Despite the nastiness inside the bathroom meant for only one person, I spent my time there using the toilet and washing my hands afterwards. When I look myself at the filthy mirror, I notice that I haven't been brushing my teeth or bathing. I look disgusting; I didn't bring my toothbrush, toothpaste or any of my hygienic products with me. Obviously, I cannot afford to buy any of them nor can I find the right places to bathe and brush besides the public restrooms (I can't just ask all the time since I won't be a paying customer).

Wanting to wash my hair a little, I turn the sink's faucet on again. I dunk my head into the sink and let the water wet my pink quills. It's a good thing that I cut it short yesterday even though I miss my long hair; the shorter it is, the quicker the washing and drying will be. Once my hair is all wet, I squeeze a handful of liquid soap sitting at the sink's corner and I lather my head entirely. It doesn't smell that good, but it will have to do for now. The white foamy bubbles soak my quills and I take my head back into the sink to let the running water rinse it all down.

When it's all gone and done, I turn off the water. I comb through my short damp hair with my fingers. Lastly, I move myself to the hand-dryer. I duck my head down below the blower, push it on and the warm air blows my hair as I shake it with my fingertips to make sure every strand is dry. The hand-dryer automatically stops after thirty seconds. My quills is not entirely dry yet albeit I'd rather not waste another half minute; I'll just let the air dry it itself.

I look myself at the mirror again. I look worst than before. The air from the hand-dryer made my quills all shaggy and messy. No time to fix it. I need to pick up my breakfast burrito and water and get the hell out of here before the owner kicks me out for spending too much time here in the bathroom and treating it like it's my home. I finally leave the store with my purchased food and all of my things.

I walk through the streets again. I ate my burrito down to the bottom as I wander around aimlessly and indulging on the warmth of scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. It's not really that good because it's a little too greasy, though at least I have something decent to consume other than that discarded hot dog and sandwich from the garbage last night. I crumple up the greased-up wrapper into a ball and I toss it into a garbage can on the corner of the street. I take a sip of my water and then resume walking without any interference.

I still don't know where I should go or where I should be. I'm down to my last singles and I worry of not surviving well with this amount of cash. What do homeless teenagers do for money? Beg? Maybe play the guitar and ask for tips? I could do that… except I can't even strum a simple guitar string. I'm not like that blonde-haired country pop singer who writes and sings nothing but love songs about having thirty different boyfriends (I hate her, by the way).

Anyway, scratch that. Getting back to the topic, I need to make sure I conserve for what's more important to me. Otherwise, I might…

"Well, well, well…" I suddenly hear a masculine raspy voice behind me. I gasp in fright. "What do we have here?" He sounded really perverted.

I turn around to see who it was. Right behind me, is a light brown male hedgehog standing in between his two cronies, one orange shrew and one green wildcat. All three are wearing matching black jackets. By the looks of their faces, they all seem perverted, just as I anticipated. The hedgehog has a cigarette hanging from his lips and the smell of tobacco and nicotine sickens me. The shrew is holding a baseball bat, tapping it against his palm. The wildcat has a broken glass bottle in one of his hands with both of his arms crossed, aiming its sharp bottom up towards diagonally in the air. I don't like where this is going. I'm getting scared. I'm panting in complete fright.

The hedgehog leader removes his cigarette from his lips and holds it in between his fingertips, shaking the ashes down to the ground. They step closer to me.

"Should we use our weapons on her, Boss?" The shrew with the bat asks him. He and the wildcat prepare their weapons.

The hedgehog raises his hand back to the two, "Drop them. We don't need them at all." He sneers at me. The shrew and wildcat did as they were told before they join him. He drops his hand down.

I step back away from them but I accidentally hit the dead end when I lean against the brick outside wall. They trap me, preventing me from escaping. All three pairs of eyes are staring at me with total lust. I stammer, "What do you want from me?"

The hedgehog maliciously says, "Are you heading somewhere, little girl? You seem lost." I'm offended when he called me that.

I snap, "I'm not a little girl! I'm sixteen! And I'm not lost; I'm just homeless and trying to find a place to stay." Why did I just say that? Damn you, instincts.

"Oh, you're a homeless runaway, huh?" The hedgehog says.

"She's too hot to be homeless, Boss," the wildcat comments.

"Yeah," the shrew adds.

I try to get away from them. They keep blocking my way. "Look, if you're thinking about mugging me, I don't have that much money on me, okay? They're all I have," I cry out.

"We don't want your money or your stuff," the hedgehog answers instantly. "What is your name, anyway?"

"Why do you care?" I snap again.

"Just answer us!"

I stood silent. I swallow with anxiety. "Amy—Amy Rose."

"Amy Rose, huh? I like that name," the hedgehog coos with huskiness. He inhales and then exhales his smoke. He temporarily turns to his friends, "Blade, Edge," He demands them, "Hold her down."

They comply. They quickly grab me, two pairs of bigger hands grabbing tightly on my upper arms. I gasp loudly and they're all looking at me with a combination of lust and malignity. Their hold is hurting me. I try to struggle myself free and scream for help, but the shrew covers my mouth with his hand, muffling me.

The shrew has his face closer to mines, "Don't even think about calling for help. You better keep this to yourself… or else."

The wildcat has his face closer to me as well, "That's right. You don't want us to shove glass up your ass or break your bones with a bat if you spread the word or snitch at us, do you?!" I shook my head. "Good."

The hedgehog joins. I can feel myself crying in fear and vulnerability. He sneers again as he orders, "Take this bitch to the back of that alley over there, where no one can see or hear us."

I get carried and dragged into the alley as my screams are still being muffled. I got thrown to the ground with my back painfully hitting against the brick wall and concrete. My backpack has fallen right next to me. The wildcat and shrew still have me bounded into their hold securely on the ground, making my escape more impossible.

The hedgehog gets closer to me and crouches down on the ground. He crudely grabs the buttons and zipper of my jeans and undid them, forcefully yanking it down to my ankles, revealing my white panties. Next, he roughly undid the zipper of my hoodie before yanking it open and ripping up my white T-shirt with his hands. My bra and upper body are visible to the three. They stare at my body with more lust. I'm shaking; I'm not looking for them to rape me.

"She's perfect indeed," The hedgehog comments while his two friends agree. While I'm still being bounded, each of them undid their jeans, revealing their large erections to my face. "Let's get this started."

My panties are pulled down. The torture begins. For the next countless agonizing minutes, I try to scream for help as all three of them are taking advantage of me. They were right; no one can hear me in this alley.

I ended up being painfully screwed by every one of them—and I'm a virgin! They are sharing their evil laughs and forcing me to shut up. Along with having them deflowering me, the hedgehog uses his cigarette against my skin, possibly for sadistic measure. I yell at the burning feeling. He sticks it upon on my face and body some more until the cigarette reaches to the butt. The hedgehog tosses it aside and resumes the brutal and disgustingly sexual torture.

I kept getting repeatedly screw some more… in and out… in and out… in and out. Minutes later, they release themselves. One came inside my womanhood; one came inside my mouth after a forced oral sex; and one came all over my torso. I have my lips squeezed shut by one of them, my mouth being filled with white bodily fluids that taste so horrendous.

"Swallow it!" He urges me while keeping my maw shut to make sure I get it down. I reluctantly swallow the semen and then gagged, almost vomiting it out.

When they're done with me, the trio stood back up from the ground, redid their jeans and then stares at me as I stay down all helpless. I'm on my fours with my head down, crying in complete agony at what they did to me. I vulnerably gaze up at them.

"Remember," The hedgehog warns me with threat, "Don't say a word about us, you little slut." He turns around with his cronies, "Come on, guys. Let's leave this homeless bitch here to rot in the trash," and all three of them left, leaving me all alone and deserted in the alley.

Painstakingly, I lean against the dead end of the alley, still sitting on the ground with complete agony. I bend my knees up to my chest and hold them closely to myself. I begin to sob with incorrigible trauma; tears well up in my eyes and I sniff. I rest my forehead on my knees and cry uncontrollably at the pain they just gave me.

I stay here in this alley for a long time. The image of me being gang-raped is just too hard to get rid of.


	5. Begging

Begging

Minutes after sitting in the alley crying, I took my time to fix up my jeans and change my shirt. I had to throw away the white T-shirt I was wearing before; there's no point of wearing them anymore because the rapists ripped it up real badly. I went through my backpack and pulled out a new shirt, put it on and then put my hoodie back on. As I was changing my clothes, I have this painful feeling down there right in between my legs. It hurts so badly and it's hard for me to get up. Despite the pain, I was able to make it through.

I leave the alley with my pack over my shoulder; I look both ways to figure out where I should go. I couldn't decide, so I just let my impulse do the work. I go to my right and walk straight down to wherever as I try to ignore the soreness from that torturous gang-rape.

For the next thirty to forty-five minutes, I kept walking and walking. I gaze around the autumn leaves, very old buildings and the contaminated concrete grounds. I got distracted by the appalling sight, I didn't realize I'm crossing the road with the pedestrian light showing a red don't-cross sign. One car screeched to a stop and then rudely honked at me for nearly running me over. I jump with my heart pounding at the scare it sent me.

"Hey! Watch it!" The female driver—I'm not sure what species she is—yells at me through the window. "The traffic light's fucking green!" I quickly step back to the corner so she could resume. I watch her drive straight up the road in a fast speed.

"Bitch," I call her under my breath. I hope she gets her license revoked. I wait until the traffic light turns red and the pedestrian light turns into a walk symbol. I cross the street when it's safe now.

I try my best not to get distracted by the ugly street sights and the inhabitants crudely passing by me. People can be so freaking rude in this area. No wonder this place is a mess. A couple of girls—one pink cat and one yellow-green rabbit—both gave me an attitude for getting into their space, even though I accidentally bumped into them by the arm.

"Do you mind?!" One said.

"Get out of the way!" The other said.

See what I mean? I didn't bother to apologize, there's no point in that. Disregarding their crudeness towards me, I kept walking. I make sure I stay away from people because I don't want to suffer too much from everyone else's disrespect. What do they have against me?

My mindless stroll leads me to a large store up ahead my direction. I stop for a minute to look up and inspect its exterior and sign. It's a market—a market that has everything. How lucky is that? I resume walking to the front of the store and stop again, standing by the double doors.

Before I enter, I check my pockets and take my cash out to recount them. My luck ended. This is definitely not enough to buy me a boxful of snacks or even a small meal.

"Shit," I curse at myself. I feel so disappointed that I'm losing a lot of money. I wanted to cry now for being broke. I try to fight it since I'm in front of bystanders and customers entering and exiting the store. I hate crying in public. They'll see and think of me as a lost child.

I walk right to the market's corner and then sit down on the ground, leaning against the wall with my knees bent up to my chest. My backpack sits in between my legs and stomach and I cuddle it like it's my baby. I close my eyes with my hands, hiding in my long sleeves, covering them; not only to hide my tears, but to also think of something. This lasts for about a minute.

Suddenly, I feel something hard, small and rectangular in the front pocket of my backpack. It's not my phone; it's way too small and narrow to be my phone. I open and uncover my eyes to check inside. I unzip the backpack's pocket before taking my hand in there—and there it is. That metallic texture and many holes aligned on the narrow side that I haven't felt for a long time. I take it out.

It's my harmonica.

Before she passed away, my mom gave this to me on my fifth birthday. I loved playing with this harmonica back then and I used to love the sound it makes when I blow on it. I remember playing the harmonica to my mom while she was lying in bed feeling really sick. She had a smile on her face after I entertained her with nonsensical tinny music. Seeing her get-well face made me happy. Just looking at this harmonica makes me think about my mother. God, I really miss her. Ever since her death and every time I feel sad in any way, I play this little instrument to calm myself down.

Seeing myself growing up with the harmonica brought me nostalgia. But those memorable moments abruptly died away when the image of my mom's grave appears. I begin to cry some more (and suddenly, I don't care if others see me like this). With my mom gone and Lauren in the picture, all the distress and other emotional pain are killing me.

Maybe I should play it.

I take my hands out of my sleeves and grasp the harmonica. I bring it to my lips and I start blowing through it. It's been a long time since I've heard this calming sound. I still feel depressed, so I kept playing it. It started off from a random single note playing to a musical humming song. I don't even know what song I'm playing; it's just a simple random blowing from side to side.

I persistently play the harmonica while thinking about my mother at the same time. The song unintentionally turns into a sad humming tune and more tears are running down. More bystanders and market customers pass by me and I try to ignore them.

One woman and her child, both some kind of feline-related species, were walking hand to hand. They momentarily stop their stroll and stare at me, looking all sympathetic. They watch me play sadly.

"Mommy," the child asks her mother, "what is this girl doing?" I'm still trying to ignore them and continue playing my harmonica, minding my own business.

"I don't know, sweetheart," the mother remarks with sweetness. "But I think she needs help." I don't know what she's talking about.

"Help for what?" The child is inquisitive.

"Here, I'll show you." The mother reaches for her wallet from her purse and then takes out a few bills. She and her daughter walk towards me. That's when I realize—the mother drops her money down into my backpack's opened front pocket.

I stop playing for a second and then look inside with perplexity. I look up to her and her daughter. She smiles while the daughter sucks her thumb with curiosity. The mother tells me, "It's for you. It's not a lot, but it should help you for now."

"Mommy, what did you just do?" The child asks again.

She answers her, "This is called 'donating.' It's a good thing because we're helping this poor girl."

"Oh," The girl coos and resumes sucking her thumb.

I check the bills she gave me: a 5 and two singles. That's seven dollars. I look up to her again. "This is not what I'm expecting, but," I pause and sniff, "thanks."

"You're welcome." Then, the mother and daughter felines hold hands and walk away.

I check the bills again. I can't believe she gave me seven dollars just for playing my harmonica. Did she really think I was begging for money? I wasn't planning to beg or start an unlicensed street performance albeit it was nice of her to do that for me, and I did feel touched at what she said about me.

I keep playing, but not exactly to beg for more money. I'm only playing it to mitigate all the sadness away. Unexpectedly, as several more people come to me when hearing my depressing harmonica music, they donated some of their money to me by putting them into my pack's pocket. They probably can perceive the bruises, cuts and tears on my face. The marks and waterworks must've been the reason why they decided to be generous to me. How touching.

For the rest of the day, I spend my time playing my harmonica and so far, I've—accidentally—made about 27 dollars and a lot of change. It's not a lot, but it should help me for today and hopefully for tomorrow. When I'm done, I use the earned cash to buy myself some small meals. I left the market to wander away from it and search for a new spot to temporarily stay. I even hide in alleys to do my natural business since not all public bathrooms are available. It's gross, but I have to do what I have to do.

I found a park as I'm walking through the neighborhood. Until the sun sets, I stay in the park where others are around doing certain activities. I sit on the grass to play my harmonica either in an attempt to earn—or unintentionally beg—more money or just to relax myself.

Everything is the same until night comes: looking for something to eat, harmonica time, looking for a bathroom spot, harmonica time, and so forth. When it's finally dark out and the street lights turn on, I leave the park just in time before its gate closes.

I roam through the streets again for countless minutes or hours. It's cold again. I yawn and I'm completely sluggish. I thought about sleeping in an unlocked car again, like last night. Unfortunately, it won't be happening again; I'd rather not waste my time searching for any unlocked cars or break into any one of them and then get arrested afterwards. It's too risky. Plus, the seats are uncomfortable as hell to sleep on.

Instead of looking through cars, I search for a bench or something. I found one metal-steel bench behind a bus stop. I fast-walk there, set my backpack on one end and I lay myself down on my side. I pull my hood over my head to keep myself warm. I rest my head on top of my backpack and use it like a pillow.

Before I go into a deep sleep, right on this hard and uncomfortable bench, I gaze up at the sky. Its dark clouds are blocking the moon and they seem heavy. I just hope it wouldn't rain on me. I didn't even have an umbrella on me nor can I afford one. The wind blows and it's giving me the chills. I snuggle deeper into my hoodie and pull the hood down even more to cover my face.

I don't know how long this will last. I'm not even sure if I can survive any longer here in the streets.

Even if I did earn myself more money today, I worry that I won't make any more sometime in the future. I'm truly aware that it's not going to last that long. Everyone will quickly get over with the depressing-harmonica-begging thing and move on with something else. Once all of my cash is gone, it's back to eating from the garbage.

I hate being homeless. I really do. But—there's no way I'm going back to that dysfunctional place I once called "home."


	6. Missing

Missing

"Hey," I stir a little when I'm feeling something tapping me. Then, someone's voice is telling me, "Child, you can't sleep here."

I still feel sluggish. I let out a tired groan as I get up from the bench I slept on for the night. I look to see who was waking me up—a female cop. She's a slender yellow fox in uniform and her hair is tied into a ponytail. She looks at me without any sternness.

I tell her, "I'm sorry. I didn't have a place to go." I take my backpack and then strap it over my shoulder. I was about to take off.

The fox cop stops me; she has her hand on my shoulder. I was about to panic. I thought I'm getting arrested or something for a crime I didn't even do. In fact, I haven't done anything illegal ever since I began my runaway. She forces me to turn around to face her. With my heart racing, she examines my face.

"You look familiar," She says to me. I'm confused; I've never seen her before in my life.

I stammer, "I—I don't know what you're talking about."

She examines me some more. The fox cop then takes her hand to her walkie-talkie strapped on her belt, along with her other police weapons and devices. I watch her. More panic is rising. "What are you going to do with me?"

She answers, "I'm going to have to contact my troops about you." She has it in her hand. Static sounds appear and someone's voice on the other end is heard. I can't quite make out what the other end is saying. It sounds distorted. I want to make an escape albeit she urges me to stay by her side.

"Yeah," the police fox says to the walkie-talkie's speaker, "This is Officer Stella speaking. I think I found the missing sixteen-year-old hedgehog. However, I'm still not sure if she's the right one." The voice replies. She examines my face as she remarks, "Her hair is in a choppy pixie cut and her face is covered with cuts, burnt marks, bruises and dark circles. She looks slightly different from the picture."

Picture? What picture?

The voice replies again, static sounds still a little audible. I'm getting more scared. "Yes; pink fur, pale skin and jade green eyes. She's also wearing a black hooded sweater, blue jeans and white sneakers." The voice replies for the last time. Finally, she says, "Okay, I'll bring her there." The call ends and she puts her walkie-talkie back on her belt.

Officer Stella—I think that's her name—comes near me. She's about to take me, "You're coming with me."

I gasp when she grasps my upper arm. I'm about to cry. "Where are you taking me?"

"To the police station," she drags me to the police car sitting on the curb a few yards away.

By the time we get there, she opens the door at the back seat. She tells me to get in. I reluctantly do so. I end up sitting on the faux-leathered car seat and the inside of the car has a fading scent that I can't figure out. Officer Stella closes the door instantly. I watch her go to her driver's seat.

Just when she's about to open her driver's car door, I watch her look down and pick up her walkie-talkie again. She suddenly gets distracted when she receives her call. She turns away from the police car, her back facing towards me from the driver's side. With all of the windows closed, her voice is muffled from the outside, making it impossible for me to understand what she's talking about. I watch her talk through the closed driver's window from the back car seat. She seems really distracted; she's too focused on her call.

This could be my chance. Without her looking, I scoot to the other side of the car. Holding on to my backpack, I hurriedly open the door—and I make my way out. I run as fast as I could.

"Hey!" Officer Stella calls out. I ignore her and kept running without looking back to her. "What are you doing?! Get back here!" I run and run and run, not even paying attention to where I'm going. Her voice becomes faded, though I can feel her chasing me.

I run around the corner of the street and I find the nearest alley. I quickly get there so I can hide in between the two buildings, camouflaging myself in the dark. For a measure, I pull my hood over my head and I hide behind the dumpster. I don't even care if it's contaminated; I just want to hide so she couldn't find me. I can sense her passing by the alley I'm in or stopping to look for me. I peek over the dumpster as subtle as I can. Officer Stella is standing by, searching for me. I expect her to come inside the alley and search. She didn't and just as I hoped, she walks away.

I wait for a few minutes before I leave. I need to double make sure she doesn't return. Five minutes later, she didn't. I get up from my hiding spot, ignoring all the dirt and grime on my clothes. I walk to the front of the alley, look both ways to make sure there are no more cops around and then I run out.

I spent my time making my getaway. I run and hide, run and hide, run and hide. My mindless getaway made me run about miles away from where I am. For what feels like hours to me, I already feel tired from all that running and hiding. I have to rest for a few minutes—I have to be somewhere where there are no others around. I'm already getting a little hungry and thirsty from my escape. I still have my water with me, but I have nothing to eat.

I stop by a street. The street where I am now is cleaner than that poverty-like area I was previously in. There are cars parked on the curb and only a few people are seen walking around, doing their business. It seems quiet—almost too quiet. Plus, I don't see any cops around yet. Maybe I should stay here for a bit; only for a little while though.

I lean my side against the nearest streetlight. I pull my backpack down from my shoulders, open it and then pull out my bottle of room-temperature water. I open the cap. I bring the bottle to my lips, taking a few sips from it. After a few gulps of water, I bring the bottle back down and then wipe my mouth with my sleeves. I then close the bottle. I put it back into my backpack to save for later. After my water break, I take a seat on the ground right against the streetlight with my pack sitting on top of my lap. I then gaze up at the clear sky.

During my mindless stare into the space, I'm suddenly feeling strange than before. I don't know why—but my hunger feels more than that. I try to ignore the weird hunger for now. Something else is getting into my mind. I thought about back then when I first ran into Officer Stella. I recalled something about me being a missing hedgehog and then specifying my current appearance. I still don't know what she was talking about me being missing. Am I an accused wanted criminal or am I a missing child? I really hope it's not the latter; there's no way I'm going back home with that abusive Lauren or get sent into some foster family.

My break is over after a few minutes. It's time for me to get something to eat and then resume the wandering around. I get up from the ground. As I put my backpack over my shoulder again—something catches in the corner of my eye.

I look up at the streetlight I was leaning on. There, taped to the silver-grey metal pole—is a missing flyer.

I read the flyer:

 **Missing:** Amy Rose

 **Age:** 16

 **Physical Description:** Pink fur with long quills, jade-green eyes, pale skin.

 **Last seen:** (Date backs three days ago) Walking out of her own house after an alleged battle with stepmom.

If found, please contact (my dad's phone number and the police department's number)

At the left side of the flyer is a photo of me. It's a picture of me with my pink quills still long down almost to my waists and there is a dark lavender-colored background. I was wearing a white collar shirt with a pink plaid tie and a red headband with a pink bow. I remember this photo of me. It's one of my school photos right before I dropped out of high school. I had a smile on my face; I used to be so happy back then.

My apprehension came true. Now, I know what that police fox was talking about. I _am_ the missing child. And now—she and the other cops are looking for me, so they can try to take me back. I can't let anyone, especially the police, find me and then report me. I just can't. I don't want to be found.

Out of impulsive anger, I grab onto the flyer with both hands and I yank it out of the pole it was taped to. The paper rips as I tear it down. I crumple it up and then throw it somewhere on the street. I resume my escape and runaway. On my way to my unknown whereabouts, I find some more flyers of me hanging on the poles and fences. I tear them down, littering the streets with torn paper.

Hunger interferes with me again. Since I have no audacity to buy some small foods—due to the cashiers possibly noticing me missing and then reporting me—I, reluctantly, look through the garbage for food that are thrown away.

I stop by a pile of black garbage bags sitting by the curb, waiting to be taken by the garbage men. I crouch down. One by one, I rip big holes on the plastic bags, digging myself into piles of gunk. I rummage inside to look for food, no matter how fucking disgusting it is. I don't seem to find much discarded food in there. I keep on digging and digging.

I can hear a group of boys having some kind of conversation over the sounds of me rummaging. They're yards away from me and their voices get louder as they come closer. I try my best to ignore them as I continue to hunt for something to eat from the trash. I'm also trying my best to make it quick for no reason. Then, their conversation abruptly went quiet.

"Hey, isn't that Amy Rose?" One of them said. Too late, guess they saw me.

"Yeah, I think that is her," Another one of them reply.

"What is she doing in the garbage?" The third one wonders. Still ignoring them and resisting myself to look at them, I keep the search going on.

Suddenly, I can feel the group of guys standing a foot behind me. "Amy? Amy Rose?" His voice sounded familiar. So are the other guys who were just asking about me.

I know whose voice is that.

Giving up the disgusting search for food in the trash, I get up from the ground. In exasperation, I look at the group of guys. There are five male hedgehogs that I'm familiar with. All five of them have their own fast food take-out paper bags in one hand and their own soda cups in the other. They probably just got back from a fast food joint and I can smell their greasy foods from where I'm standing. They all look at me with shock and surprise. I return the glare with aggravation.

I am seriously NOT happy to see them.

Right in the middle of the group… is Sonic the Hedgehog—my ex-boyfriend.

And the four hedgehogs standing by his sides are his three friends and his brother: Shadow, Silver, Scourge and Manic.

* * *

 **A/N: In case you're wondering... It will NOT end up like "Taken Advantage" or "Love Hexagon"... or even "Butterfly in a Jar."  
**


	7. Opening

**A/N: I'm suddenly in a logical mood right now. I'm not going to specify how and why Sonic and Amy broke up before. I'll leave that out for you to figure out or to theorize yourselves.**

 **Getting a little emotional here. Hope you enjoy the chapter right here. (And please don't forget to Review).**

* * *

Opening

Okay, I'm going to be honest here. The reason why I'm not happy with seeing Sonic is because he did something horrid to me while we were still together. He did something that I can never forget. Ever! And because of that, I had to break up with him. I'm also not happy to see Sonic's friends and his brother. I never got along with any of them and I never liked being around them.

Shadow is a quiet pessimist; Silver is a nuisance with his naivety; Manic is way too rowdy and loud; and Scourge is a disgusting pervert. As for Sonic—the closest thing I can say about him is that he can be an arrogant a-hole at times and he can be really overprotective, which I hate. Well, that's what I get for dating someone who is three years older than me (he's nineteen, and so are the others).

Anyway, please don't ask me how I got into Sonic's house. After they found out I was trying to eat from the trash, they persuaded me into coming over to his house to eat something more decent. I was very reluctant to go to Sonic's place. I'd rather stay in an alley instead of going over to my ex's house, which I haven't seen for quite a long time. Despite my disinclination—I went anyway. Thanks a lot, guilt-trip!

I've never been this hungry before. I'm sitting at the table with Sonic and the guys in the kitchen and he prepared me some of his leftovers from his last night's dinner. There's a bowl of macaroni and cheese and some cold pizza topped with anchovies. It's very strange considering the fact that I hate salty fish, though I ate it anyway. Not only I'm gobbling almost the entire contents down—I have the tendency to mix food around.

I put a scoop of macaroni and cheese on top of the anchovy pizza and I topped it with pickle chips that Sonic, Shadow and Silver discarded from their burgers. I added some honey mustard on the mac and cheese that hasn't been added to the pizza yet. Now, I suddenly want some milkshake mixed with sardines and pickles. God, I don't know what the hell's wrong with me.

I literally ate everything Sonic and Manic prepared for me with both hands. Two hands! And I'm eating like some kind of ravenous predator eating its prey. You think that's not embarrassing enough? I'm eating my mixed food right in front of five guys!

As I'm ravenously eating the food, I can feel the guys being distracted from their own burgers, fries and sodas and they're all completely quiet. They're probably watching me with shock and surprise. I pause for a moment to give myself air from all that heavy eating. I made eye contact with every one of them—and they are indeed wide-eyed as hell.

"What?" I say with my mouth full.

"Whoa, someone must be hungry." Manic says. I swallow my food down.

"Shut up! Okay?!" I snap at him, sending nearly all of them off their seats when I yell.

"No need to shout at him, Ames," Sonic defends his brother, "He's just—"

"Do not call me 'Ames,'" I snarl at my ex, "I'm not even with you anymore!"

Then, Scourge did his own thing, "Are you stilling seeing someone? If not, I can take you." I growl at his statement.

Out of—unknown—anger, I quickly grab a handful of the macaroni and cheese while getting up from my seat. I threw the ball of cheese-covered pasta right at Scourge, aiming it at his chest. He nearly fell back from his chair; Shadow and Silver, both inarticulately shouting something, swiftly held onto him by before he hits the floor. I can hear them asking him if he's okay and he responds with a yeah. I expected him to retaliate. He didn't. Now, everyone's up from their chairs, shocked at what the hell just happened. Scourge is wiping the stain from his shirt with his hand, cursing at himself that it's his favorite shirt.

They all look at me. I only glare at them with resentment. Silver says, not sounding pissed off or something like that, "What has gotten into you, Amy?"

Scourge adds, "Yeah, babe. Since when did you get all violent? I kinda like that in you." I can sense lust in him. God, I hate that.

I wanted to throw something at him again—or something worse. I'm about to grab a fork from the table and then stab him somewhere in the face, but Sonic and Manic stop me from attempting to kill one of their friends.

"Whoa, whoa, hey," I hear them say.

"Easy now, Ames—I mean, Amy." Sonic calmly tells me. I'm about to snap again when he almost called me that nickname he used to call me when we were still together. I silently take a few deep breaths, inaudible enough so they couldn't hear.

Manic says, "And don't worry about him," He's referring to Scourge, "He's just being his usual self. He doesn't really mean that."

I try to calm myself down from all that anger. I don't even know where all of this came from. Silver then says, "Do you want to talk about what's wrong?"

"No," I dryly answer.

"Are you sure? I'm sure it'll make you feel better." I remain silent. Since when did that naïve-ass white hedgehog became a psychologist? I don't think I trust any one of these guys about what I've already gone through.

"Amy, I think you should," Sonic adds. "And besides, Silver has a point. Just recently, we found one of those missing posters. Everyone's probably looking for you. Is there a reason why you're missing?"

I sigh and then curse under my breath. I knew something like this would happen when they take me over here. "I don't want to fucking talk about it." I snarl. "What happened to me is really none of your business!" I shout at the last statement.

Right away, I move myself away from the table and then angrily walk to the other room, not even looking back at them.

"Amy, wait," Sonic calls out as he follows me, leaving the rest there in the kitchen.

I resentfully grab my backpack that I left beside Sonic's couch before I came to the kitchen to eat and I stomp towards the front door with my hand on the knob. Sonic rushes behind me. He stops me from opening the door by putting his hand on my shoulder. "Amy, where are you even going?"

I turn around, still sending him rage, "Somewhere I belong," (wow, I made a Linkin Park reference; I almost sang that line), "Out on the streets, where no one else around!" I face back towards the door. With all the coldness I have to him, I rudely say, "Thanks for the fucking food." I turn the knob.

"No," Sonic stops me again, refusing me to exit out of his house, "There's no way you're going out there!" He has his hand pushing the door shut as I try to pull it open. The door opens half an inch when I pull and it shuts when he pushes.

"Sonic!" I struggle on the door while he continues to push it close. "Just let me out! Please!"

"No, you're staying right here! I—we—need to talk to you, because we really care about you!"

I stop my struggling. Suddenly, I quickly went from anger to sadness. Where these mood swings coming from anyway? I turn back around to make eye contact with him. I sniff, "You do?"

Sonic instantly sees the sadness in me now. He takes his hand from the door. He sighs and then carefully sets both of his hands on my shoulders. "I do. We all do, as the matter of fact, and we want to help you. We already know about you living in the streets, and that's why we want to help you. Can you at least tell us what's really going on? And how you ended up homeless in the first place? I already can't stand seeing you suffer on the streets."

Sonic gives me a minute to think about this. I remain quiet as I think until I finally answer him. "I'd rather just talk to you first, not the others. I still don't trust Shadow, Scourge, Silver and Manic entirely, so—I just want this whole thing between you and me."

I watch Sonic turn back at the kitchen for a mere second. There, I can see the other four peeking through to eavesdrop. Sonic gestures them that I wanted to speak with him alone and so, they comply. They move away from the kitchen's doorway, though I can still sense them eavesdropping even when they aren't showing their faces. They're probably leaning against the closed door to hear us. Sonic faces towards me again.

He leads me to the couch, gesturing me to sit down next to him. I set my backpack down on the floor, leaning its back against the furniture, as Sonic and I sit down together on the couch. We make eye contact; Sonic has so much concern in his eyes whilst I have nothing but sadness in mines.

"Amy," Sonic takes both of my hands, which feels awkward after our breakup. I pull them away from him.

"I don't even know where to begin," I answer.

"How about you start by explaining why you left your home in the first place and then slept on the streets?"

I sniff. All this thinking about Lauren and my own friends rejecting me is sending me more despair. I sniff again, trying to hold back the sobs. I take a deep breath before I begin,

"It's because I have a stepmom." Sonic perks his ears. Of course, he never knew I have a stepmom; no one does. I resume, "My stepmom's name is Lauren. A few years ago, my mother passed away and my dad remarried her—and she's been the biggest piece of shit ever since she entered the family.

"Lauren has been abusive towards me since the day Dad remarried her. She beats me up, physically and emotionally, day and night and Dad believed in every lies she tells him; she lies to him that I'm such a clumsy bitch who keeps falling down the stairs and he would say that I should be more careful next time. Not only is Lauren abusive, she's also a drug addict. She kept all of those heroin and other drugs inside her 'special box' right on the vanity. Believe me, I saw it. Dad never saw it, he refuses to go inside her personal property. Before I step out of the door, Lauren called me a 'little bitch' and then beat me to the floor as I retaliated. I got back up, told her to tell Dad not to look for me because 'I'd rather die on the streets rather than to be neglected and be beaten some more.' And you want to know what she said?"

Sonic shook his head. I cried out, "She screamed 'I hope you die!' right at me and then slammed the door as I walk away." He's shocked.

I kept the story coming with my voice breaking into more pain, "And it's not just Lauren, Sonic. It's my dad, too. He left me all alone with her as he goes out to work and Lauren abused me over everything when Dad's not home. She threatened me that if I spread the word to Dad or anyone else, she would do something more drastic to me, like pushing me down the stairs or locking me in the closet for the whole night. I'm not fucking joking! And when Dad comes home from work and sees me with bruises on my face, Lauren lied to him and she forced me to lie to him as well! I tried to come clean to him, but he wouldn't believe any shit I say! He claimed that Lauren is innocent, when she's not!

"Because I cannot stand all of this shit anymore, I had to run away from home. I even attempted to steal some of Lauren's money, but during our last battle, she found out and then stole some of them back. I tried to call my own friends: Cream, Blaze, Tikal, Rouge, Mina and even Rosy. The problem is that I stopped making contact and hanging out with them since Lauren came and Lauren isolated me from them, refusing to allow me to be with them. Plus, I didn't have the audacity to tell them about Lauren; I'm afraid of what they would think. I also dropped out of school because I couldn't focus on my classes and I didn't want any teachers and school counselors to know about this. I worry that they would report the CPS to take me away from Dad and Lauren and send me to some foster parents. I didn't want to be sent to any foster parents! I don't want to be raised or taken care of by adults and children I don't even know!" I pause to sob and sniff.

"Anyway, back to my friends—or my ex-friends, I should refer to them. I called to ask them if I can stay over at their places. They acted really cold towards me over the payphone, just because they think I didn't want to be friends with them anymore, and they all rejected me. They didn't want me to stay at their places, not even for one second. With no other places to go to, I had to take the train to move away from the area I once lived in and I stayed in a poverty neighborhood for two nights. Two fucking nights in poverty! The night before, I broke into someone else's car to sleep there, and last night, I slept right on the bench behind the bus stop! And—it was fucking cold! I had nothing to keep me warm except for this hoodie that I've been wearing since my escape and it was barely enough!

"So throughout my time in just three days and two nights, I wander around from street to street; I haven't bathed, I had to do my natural business in alleys, I ate from the trash to survive and save money, I begged by playing my harmonica, and—just yesterday, I was raped by three perverted strangers!"

Sonic gasps with total shock. "You got raped?" I nod. "Did you report them?"

I shook my head with trauma, "No. They warned me that they would beat me up if I ever snitch at them. I didn't know what to do about this. And just this morning, one cop found me and she nearly took me in to the police station after finding me. I didn't want to be reported and be sent back home with Dad and Lauren, so I ran away from her. Now—not only I've run away to escape from Lauren, I'm also in hiding from the police."

I ended my story. I take another deep breath before letting myself to sob. I have both of my hands to my eyes and I cry and cry. I can feel Sonic scooting himself closer to me. He then sets his hand onto my shoulder for comfort.

With no expectation, Sonic pulls me closer to him for a comforting hug. He shushes me, whispering to me to relax, "There, there, Amy Rose. I understand everything you said."

I continue to sob. I didn't hug him back; I don't want to. This persists for several minutes. I pick my head up after my moment of crying. I gaze at him with teary eyes. We make another eye contact.

"Is there anything I can do for now?" Sonic asks.

"Promise me you won't report me. I really don't want to go back to my dysfunctional home or get sent away." I answer meekly.

"I don't think I can do this, though," Sonic remarks with solemnity, "There could be consequences and me and the guys would get into trouble for harboring a runaway youth, like you."

"Please," I beg him. "Please, just try."

He sighs and remains silent. Then, Sonic answers, "I promise."

Despite that I'm still really reluctant to stay at his house, I accept Sonic's offer to stay here for a while, or until I decide to leave for good. I take my backpack off the floor and I make my way back through the kitchen to head to the extra room. Sonic and Manic has a sister, Sonia, but she doesn't live with them anymore (Sonic, Manic and Sonia are all triplets, by the way). Sonic told me that Sonia got engaged and she's now living with her fiancé, so he told me that I can stay at her room for now.

I step through the kitchen—and I stop walking for a moment when I saw Scourge, Shadow, Manic and Silver sitting by the doorway. They look concern; I suspect that they were eavesdropping, just as I anticipated.

"Were you all listening?" I asked all four of them, sounding a bit irritated albeit still emotional about my talk with Sonic.

They try to come up with inarticulate lies, but instead, I told them, "It doesn't even matter anymore. I don't even care if you were there or not." Then, I resume my walk to Sonia's room.

I set my backpack on the end of the bed and then I lie my back down on the mattress. I stare at nothing but the ceiling. I'm confused. I'm sort of glad that I'm no longer sleeping on the streets now, but I'm still not happy to be with my ex. I'm confused because—well, I'm don't even know if this is right or wrong to stay at my ex's and his friends' place. Me—the only girl—staying over at a big house with five different guys? Is this even right? Does that count as me being some kind of slut?

Not only I'm flummoxed about this, I'm also worried. Sooner or later, the police will come and search for me and then take me away. I still don't know if I can trust the guys for keeping me in hiding. Can they even keep a secret? Is it against the law for a minor, like me, to live with a group of legit adults, like Sonic and them? What will they do if they find a minor girl living with a group of adults who are not even related to me? What if the police accuse them for being pedophiles and keeping me under their roof?

Sonic's right… there will be consequences if they harbored me. Now something tells me that this won't end well as I hoped.


	8. Fainting

**A/N: Honestly in the previous Chapter, I regret mentioning all those foods. Now, I'm going to regret this one as well.**

 **I'm a Vegan and I regret making characters consume food that are animal-derived, especially the next thing Amy will eat later in this chapter. I know I cannot make all Sonic characters Vegetarian and/or Vegan because it'll ruin their cannon. Believe me, I'm really reluctant to do this.**

 **I'm really sorry, my veggie friends. Please don't hate me for trying to accommodate the characters' dietary habits. :c**

* * *

Fainting

Throughout the first day in Sonic's house, I was finally able to shower and then brush my teeth. It feels so good to be under the running hot water. Sonic had a spare unused toothbrush somewhere in the cabinet in one of his bathrooms and he allowed me to take it. Before I showered, I removed my hoodie, shirt, jeans and socks that I've been wearing non-stop for three days. I put them in the laundry, in which Sonic offered to do for me, and I put on a fresh new set of clothes; pink and white pajamas, also formerly owned by Sonia. Once my hygienic business is done, I spent the rest of the day doing nothing but eating and a lot of resting.

I'm in bed in Sonia's old room, lying on top of the cotton ivory bed sheets. I'm not sure why I've been doing a lot of sleeping lately. First, my weird eating habits and now, I'm sleeping and waking like a chubby cat. I guess it's because my journey through the streets have been making me tired as hell; I have been doing a lot of walking and sleeping in the car and bench was complicated.

I finally have my phone plugged to the outlet next to the bed; it's sitting on top of the night-stand right next to the pink and purple lamp with flower prints. Sonia must be feminine, modest and classy, judging by the appearance and style of her furniture before she moved out to live with her fiancé. I met Sonia only a few times. When Sonic introduced me to her, Sonia was a little spoiled and annoying with her valley girl accent albeit she can be caring and self-sufficient. I can't say I like her, though at the same time I didn't hate her at all.

Anyway, I turn my phone on as it's still charging. I look through my missed calls and text messages I received while my phone died out during my runaway. I have dozens of missed calls and countless unread text messages—all from Dad.

" **Amelia, where are you?"**

" **Are you okay?"**

" **Lauren told me you left… She said something about a fight between you and her"**

" **I'm seriously worried about you now"**

" **Amelia, please come home"**

" **If you don't answer as soon as possible, I'll have to call the police"**

" **That's it, if you're not coming home or calling back to me, then I'm calling the police now"**

The rest is all the same. I don't need to read the rest. I'm just really sad to hear how worried Dad is. At the same time, I'm pissed off at him for calling the cops on me for being missing and for calling me "Amelia." That's my full name, but I hate being called that.

I close off the text message app. I start touching the screen to dial my dad's number and then call him. But before I hit send, I thought about what he would say or do if he finally heard my voice. Will he be mad at me for running away? Will Lauren butt in our call? What I'm afraid of the most is if Dad will start accusing me for beating up Lauren and then run off. Of course, he'll do that. He's always enabling Lauren and believes in every lies of shit she says about me. When will he finally learn that Lauren has been performing child abuse on me?

After thinking about my fears and worries, I decided to close the phone call app and not bother calling him. Let him get worried for all I cared. I turn my phone off and allow it to continue charging.

I pull the blankets over me. I look at the digital clock on the nightstand. It's already 9:45 pm. Even though I've napped for countless hours, I'm still feeling sleepy. I figured it would be best for me to just lie in bed and wait for the slumber to kick in. I turn to my side, lay my head on the pillow, and then just stare at the wall in the near-darkness of the room. While I wait for the next sleep to happen, I can hear Sonic and his friends having a good time without me.

All five of them are in the living room; I can hear their rowdiness, laughter and mindless conversations from all the way to the third floor and with the door shut. They even blast Linkin Park songs in a volume loud enough for the floor to shake. As much as I enjoy listening to Linkin Park, I'm trying my best to ignore the sounds of nu-metal so I can try to sleep.

I yawn and within minutes, my heavy eyes closed and at last, I'm sleeping.

~~X~~

It's the middle of the night. It's passed 3 am.

I immediately woke up with a strange, sickening feeling. I quickly got out of bed, open the door and I ran out through the third floor corridor. I run to the nearest bathroom… and then I vomited right into the opened toilet bowl. I get on my knees as I begin to retch as chucks of food I previously ate came out from my mouth and mix into the toilet water. The stench fills in the air, sickening me some more. The nasty aroma made me vomit more. A couple of minutes later, it's all gone.

Maybe it's all the mixture of pickles and anchovies I had earlier that made me vomit in the middle of the night.

I gasp for air for several minutes, closing the toilet lid. I flush it all down. Now, I'm feeling really dizzy, I can barely stand up from the bathroom floor. Trying my best to keep myself balanced, I walk out of the bathroom, hands on the walls to make sure I don't collapse on the floor. I stop walking, eyes getting blurry and lightheadedness interfering. I thought maybe I'm dehydrated or something, so very carefully, I make my way downstairs to the kitchen to grab a drink of water and maybe get something to eat to refill my belly.

I barely made it there; I nearly fell down the stairs, but I was able to make it to the kitchen. I walk to the refrigerator, grab the handle and pull it open. I pull the large pitcher of filtered water out of the shelf and then set it on the island table. I look through the foods in there; all just leftovers and something else I couldn't really see through my blurred vision. I found a few packs of raw red meat—looks like sirloin or shoulder steak. Suddenly, more weird cravings are coming to me as I stare at the raw meat. I don't have time to cook them at 3 am, so…

I open one pack, take out one of the smallest thin slices of sirloin and then reseal the pack. I close the fridge and holding the raw meat in my hand, I take out a glass to fill it with water. After pouring in my water, I take an impulsive bite of the raw sirloin meat. I chew and chew until it's soft and I let it down. It's so gross, but at the same time, it feels so good. I know it's wrong to eat raw meat, but one little raw sirloin won't hurt that much. After I swallow, I drink my water; the fainting feeling is already going away. I continue the pattern to eat the red meat and drinking the water to hydrate and wash down the meaty taste. I kept chewing until the sirloin is just a little chunk.

Out of nowhere, the kitchen light turns on, "Who's in there?"

I jump in fright. Standing right there is Sonic, wearing his T-shirt and boxer shorts. My eyes widen in embarrassment and fear. I try to hide the meat chunk behind my back.

"Amy? What are you doing here?" Sonic asks me.

"Nothing, just having a midnight snack." I say, stammering.

Sonic swiftly gets behind me to see what I was hiding. He already saw it. He takes the red chunk out of my hand. Sonic glares at me with shock and horror. "Were you eating raw meat?!"

I try to come up with a lie. However, I'm not good at lying. The best thing I could think of is this, "It's not that bad, okay? And one little piece won't hurt me."

Sonic dumps the chunk into the garbage, "Amy, you know you can get sick from this. The next day, you might end up having a parasite living in your stomach." He's becoming my father now. Already, I'm getting aggravated with his talk.

In rage, I said, "Look, you're not my dad! Stop treating me like a child, Sonic! Just because you're not my boyfriend anymore, doesn't mean you have to be so overprotective of me!"

Sonic retaliates, "Yes, I can! I may be overprotective, but I'm doing this because I care about you and your safety! And I don't have to be your boyfriend again to protect you! Listen, if you want to keep staying here, at least try to get along with everyone else here, especially me!"

"I never wanted to be here in the first place! You're the one who dragged me here with your shitty guilt trip!"

"What are you talking about? I just didn't want you to keep sleeping on the streets. But still, you need to get along with my friends and my brother. Already, you scared Manic out of his seat and nearly knocked Scourge out with food."

"Well, no offense but your friends and brother are jerks!" I snarl. "Scourge might rape me in my sleep; Manic will keep me wide awake with his rambunctiousness; Shadow will darken my mood and everyone else's; and Silver will keep annoying me with his naivety!"

Sonic is indeed offended, "That's not true! It's not their fault they're being themselves! How about I'll tie Scourge on a leash; I'll put a muzzle on Manic; and I'll try to get Shadow and Silver to—"

"That won't make a fucking difference!" I scream, "The point is that… that…" All of the sudden, I'm trailing off my words. I try to make eye contact with Sonic, but something is going wrong again.

No, it's not dehydration or hunger that's making me faint. It's something else, though I don't know what.

"Amy?" Sonic is trying to get my attention, "Amy?"

Then, my eyes are completely blurred… and when the blur turned into completely blackness… I collapse right into Sonic's arms.


	9. Dreaming

Dreaming

I remember Mom used to be depressed all the time. I wasn't sure if it's that mental illness kind or just an emotion she's been feeling too often. She looked so disheartened about something, but I couldn't make out what it was. She never talked much about it. Before I left for school, Mom was sitting on her bed with her unkempt hair and white robe. She was facing towards the window and away from me as I was standing by the doorway.

I asked her if she was okay. She didn't say much. All she said was, "Amy…"

"Hm?"

Still not facing away, Mom said, "Amy Rose… I love you. I love you more than myself. I truly do."

I was perplexed. I didn't know what she was talking about. "I—I love you, too. Are you sure you're okay?" I tried to walk in to see her, though she wouldn't let me in.

"Amy, please just go to school. Close the door on your way out for me." In every word she said to me without facing me—she was weeping.

I grabbed the doorknob and before I closed the door, I asked her one last time. "Are you sure you're okay, Mom?" Nothing but persistent silence.

She sniffed. "Goodbye, Amy Rose."

Her sadness made me sad, too. I sighed, "Goodbye, Mom. I'll see you later."

Then, I closed the door. I heard her crying from the other side. The sound of her cries was breaking my heart into pieces.

Throughout that day, I couldn't focus on anything in school. What were really in my mind were my Mom and her mysterious sadness. Once school day was over, I entered my house.

"Mom?" I looked around the house, "Mom, I'm home from school."

I searched from room to room. She wasn't in the living room, sitting on her favorite chair and reading her favorite books. She wasn't in the kitchen, standing by the stove, cooking our favorite meals and baking our favorite treats. She wasn't in the bathroom either. She's nowhere. That only left with one place I hadn't yet checked: my parents' bedroom.

First, I went to my room to set my backpack on my bed. Then, I left and quietly made my way to my parents' bedroom, where I was not comfortable entering. Her bedroom door was closed; I knocked.

"Mom? Mom, it's me, Amy." I said through the closed door. "I just got back from school. Are you still in there? I just want to make sure everything is okay with you." I paused, trying to hold back my own tears. "Mom, I'm really worried about you." My voice is breaking.

Like earlier that morning, there was nothing but silence. It was sending me both despair and fear. When the silence continued for over a minute, I then realized that I should just open the door and barge right in. I grabbed hold on the doorknob and opened the door. When I stepped in… this was when my nightmare came true.

I saw my mother—still in her robe from that morning—lying down on her side on her bed. Her eyes, all covered with dark circles, were tightly shut underneath her messy hair. And right in front of her face—was an uncapped bottle and scattered unused pills.

I gasped at the sight. It couldn't be true. I ran closer to her. I said her name many times, trying to wake her up. She didn't. She was breathless and I felt no heartbeat.

I immediately called 9-1-1. Once she was taken to the hospital, I called Dad about what happened to Mom. He didn't say much about it at all. How can Dad not cared about what happened to Mom?

At the hospital, the doctors told me that Mom has been dead for several hours while I was at school. She died from the pill overdose. They questioned me about her previous medications, depression and any other suicidal thoughts. I told them that I was not aware of any of her conditions. I didn't know that she was suicidal before. She was so secretive about her feelings.

I still wasn't sure if that was an intentional pill overdose for suicide, or something else.

That day—the death of my mother, Emma Rosaline the Hedgehog—will always haunt me forever. Even in my dreams.

The very last thing I remembered of her was her facing towards the window, not turning around to look at me, and me listening to nothing but her soft cries from her.

Without my Dad around to be there for me, I was all alone during her hospitalization and her funeral.

I was down on the ground on my knees… my heart was broken into a million pieces… and I was hysterically crying. All of my loud cries and screams of my mom's death echoes in the air.

~~X~~

"Amy? Amy, are you okay?" The voice repeats a few times.

I abruptly wake up from one of my dreams, which are actually my haunting flashbacks about my mom. I feel my heart pounding rapidly, almost to the point of going into shock. My eyes opened wide when I feel someone's hand grasping on me and shaking me. I didn't remember much what happened before I blacked out.

I jerk myself up and I realized I'm on the couch in a supine position. I look to the side to see who was waking me up, taking deep breaths to ease away the shock I'm about to get. I gaze at five pairs of eyes—emerald, charcoal, cobalt, crimson and amber—and all of them are filled with worry.

Sonic is right in front of his three friends and brother and he was the one who was shaking me awake. He sighs in relief.

"Oh, good. She's awake," Manic says. "I thought she's going into some kind of coma."

I have my hand on my head where the pain just came. "What coma?" I reply with perplexity. I rub the migraine to ease it away. "And what time is it?"

"It's already noon," Silver answers. I was surprised that I've slept for so many hours. I curse under my breath.

"Babe," Scourge begins, "What you did last night was crazy. He told us what you did."

I jerk to Sonic. Sonic told me, "Amy, right after you ate that piece of raw meat and that abrupt argument you and I had, you passed out right into my arms. You were out cold and I took you on the couch for the rest of the night. This morning, we realized that you were still out cold and we kind of got worried about you. We worried that the raw meat may have already made you sick."

"Yeah, and you wasted my good piece of sirloin." Manic adds.

Shadow offers me a glass of warm water. I accept it and then take it to my lips, drinking the clear tasteless beverage.

Silver informs me, "Amy, just now while we were checking up on you—and we don't mean this in a perverted way—we couldn't help but to notice that you were shaking, sweating, and twitching in your sleep on the couch."

I noticed that Shadow has a wet towel in his hand. He must have wiped the sweat off my forehead while I was unconscious. He drops the towel inside the little bowl full of water, causing a little splash.

Scourge asks, "Were you having a dream or something?"

How did he know? Was my motivation enough for them to understand what was happening to me?

"I—I really don't know." I remembered what I was thinking last night. That flashback nightmare about me finding my mom dead on her bed, it was too much for me to talk about. I give the glass of water back to Shadow, in which he takes it back into his hands before setting it on the end table next to the couch. Does Shadow even talk by the way? He's always so quiet and mysterious.

Sonic adds, "You were also mumbling something in your sleep. Because of your bursts from last night, along with your bizarre behaviors, weird cravings for raw meat and your sleep jerking and talking, we feared that we may have to take you to some kind of doctor for diagnosis." He touches my hands gently. There's so much apprehension in his eyes, "Are you sure everything is okay with you? Are you feeling okay right now?"

Those words—those are the same words I asked my mother before. Those words are haunting me again. I kept quiet as I'm being traumatized by Sonic's words that were previously said by me a few years ago on the day of Mom's death. I sit on the couch all silent amid the concern and apprehension by all five guys.

The silence persists. Impetuously and not having the audacity to talk about that haunting image within me, I let go of Sonic's hands and then I get off the couch. I storm right upstairs, ignoring all the calls from them to come back. I ran back into Sonia's room I was before last night. I slam the door shut behind me before locking the door.

I lean my back against the door, gazing up at the ceiling feeling nothing but heartbreak, grief, pain and despair. Slowly, very slowly, I slide myself down to the floor until I'm sitting down with my back still leaning against the door. More emotional pain arises… and I close my eyes as tears came up.

I bend my legs up, hugging my knees to my chest and resting my forehead on top of my knees. I begin to cry, letting out all the misery I have within me.

I can feel all five of them standing behind the closed door, probably wondering what is wrong with me.

I kept crying and crying… allowing them to listen to my pain through the locked door.


	10. Isolating

**11/21/15: To be honest everyone, I'm still not happy. Not just because of the incident that happened to me here, it's mostly because my birthday is coming in just a few days (11/25) and I'm just too depressed about it. So I'm really sorry if I'm not doing a good job here.**

 **Also, I just want to send my prayers to all of those lost souls in Paris, 11/14.** _**R**_ ** _epose en paix :'c_**

* * *

Isolating

I've locked myself in this room for such a long time and I still haven't come out unless if it's really necessary. All I did was lying on bed, thinking about that dream I had last night right after I fainted. The room is perfectly quiet; silence is always the best noise for me albeit it can be really depressing. The only noise there is are the muffled noise made by Sonic and the others all the way down to the bottom floor.

I barely did anything. I barely even touched my phone. I just noticed that my phone can be tracked down once it's on, so I decided to just keep it shut off. I still don't want to be found and be taken home; at the same time, I don't think I can stay here and hide for the rest of my life. I don't think I can get along with them for days, or months—or years maybe.

Despite that I may not get along with them, they were still kind enough to leave me food and drinks by the locked door. It's good that they don't want me to starve or dehydrate. But I still refuse to come out or thank them. I'd just tell them to leave them there and just go. By the time they're away, I'd unlock the door, open it just ajar, take the food and drinks in and then close and relock the door instantly without even seeing them.

As I'm still lying down on bed and staring at the blank ceiling, I couldn't help but to notice something. That dream—that flashback—I just had. Something doesn't seem right.

Dad wasn't there with me when Mom died. Dad didn't feel anything when I told him about her death. And—he didn't even show up at her funeral. Where was he during the time of her funeral and her burial? What kind of father would not show any emotions about his wife's untimely passing?

This doesn't seem right at all. And I sense something else before her death.

Dad was barely home during dinner.

Dad has been keeping himself away from Mom.

Dad never mentioned what job he has.

And just a couple or few months after Mom's burial… Dad remarried Lauren too soon.

Since Dad never showed any emotions and never showed up during her hospitalization and funeral… could it be?

Could it be that Dad was involved with Mom's death? Did Dad tried to murder Mom and then tried to get away with it?

My eyes widens at those thoughts. They're scaring me now. How could I assume that my dad was attempting to murder Mom? Now, I'm having this spine-chilling theory.

Dad must've planned all this time to murder Mom for an unknown reason. I remember that she died from a pill overdose. He must've been aware that Mom may be sick or too depressed or something, so he may have given those pills to make her better. He may have intentionally gave her the wrong kind of pills to not make her better, but to make her more sick than before, as in he's poisoning her. He probably kept giving her those pills until she reached to her very end. When she finally took her last breath, Dad must've turned the homicidal poisoning into a suicide, so he could hide it and then he left the house before I came home from school.

I know this theory may be absurd. However, I may never know for sure. This is like one of those unsolved death cases I've heard before in history. I tried to not think about it because the more I do think about it, the more frightened and depressed I become.

I really don't want Sonic or anyone else in this household to know about this. They may think that I'm crazy for thinking that Dad may have murdered my mom on purpose just so he could have something he wanted. They will definitely not understand anything I said anyway. They're not even that smart enough to understand what happened.

Suddenly, I hear their conversation. What really caught my attention is them referring to my name. I quietly open the door and step out. I crawl to the staircase, not making a sound, and then kneel by the banister. I listen to their conversation from the kitchen—where they are now—to the top of the staircase, where I'm hiding. I grasp onto two spindles of the banister, one hand per spindle. I meticulously listen to the five different male voices amid my own silence.

"Sonic, are you sure you want to keep her in here?" Manic says.

Sonic replies, "Yes, I'm sure. She's going through a lot right now and I really want to make sure she's okay. The last thing I wanted was for her to live on the streets again. There's no way I'm letting her sleep out there on the cold streets."

Manic informs, "But you know she's a missing runaway. What if someone comes into the house asking if any of us has seen her?"

Shadow, finally able to hear his voice, adds, "And not to mention, they can easily track her down by her phone. They would start searching for her here in this house, even if we lie to them that she's not here."

"I'll come up with a way. I'm sure I can." Sonic stubbornly answers.

Silver says, "How? You can actually get into trouble for harboring a missing runaway. And besides, she's a minor. It's also against the law for a minor to live in someone's place."

Sonic answers, "I'm aware of that! But I made a promise to Amy that I won't report or let anyone know about this. Her abusive stepmother already put her through so much and I really don't want her to suffer more."

"How long are you even going to keep her here?" Shadow asks.

"That depends. I'm not sure." Sonic sighs, sounding as if he has no idea what to do.

"Well, she can't just stay here. She has to be found and taken away somehow."

"Shadow's right," Manic says, "I don't think I can handle Amy staying here either."

"Manic! How could you say that?" Sonic exclaims.

Manic continues, "Well, no offense, Sonic. But—I think Amy's going crazy. You did say that she ate raw meat in the middle of the night. Who the hell does that? What's next, eating raw eggs? She'll die having a tapeworm growing inside her stomach!"

Scourge exclaims, "And have you seen her when we took her home? She was eating like some kind of fucking animal! And she screamed right at us like a banshee! She almost knocked me down yesterday!"

Sonic, sounding exasperated, informs, "I know what she did was really freaky and absurd. But at least try to get along with her for now. She really has no one to be there for her. She lost her mom, her dad wouldn't care about her, her stepmom kept beating her up, and she really lost all of her friends. There's really no one else for her and we are all she has left."

Silver replies with seriousness, "Sonic, seriously."

"It's just for a little while until she's all settle down." Sonic is about to calm down from his last near-infuriated statement.

"Well, I just hope she'll pull through in a few days or less and then leave once she's okay." Scourge says.

"It's going to take a while longer than that, okay?" Sonic answers him.

"Also, Amy's your ex-girlfriend. Are you even okay with the idea of her living with you even though you two are not even together anymore? Not even after what you have done to her that led to you guys to break up?" Silver asks.

"Silver, please don't remind me. It wasn't even my fault. Now, let's go, guys. We better do some grocery shopping before the market gets too crowded at this hour." Sonic concludes the conversation.

By the time it ends, I can hear all five of them preparing to leave the house to do their errands. The sounds of their voices faded right after I hear the door close. Now, the entire house is completely silent.

I think back everything they said about me. I'm entirely offended with Scourge and Manic both calling me crazy and wanting me to leave this place as soon as possible. Those words they said about me made me realize how much they cannot stand me, even though I've only been here for two days and one night. And it wasn't even my fault that something wrong was happening with me. I just don't know what made me so moody and craving for strange mixtures of food. I'm still not sure if it's my anger against Lauren and anyone else that pissed me off that made me moody. And I didn't even remember why I decided to eat raw meat; it was done by instincts. And that fainting last night? Where did that even come from?

I've never been this confused before. But it's not the perplexity that's getting me. It's my offended reaction on what they really think of me. If they think that I'm going mad—then maybe this isn't going to work out at all.

I get up and then ran back to the room. I changed from the pajamas I've been wearing to another T-shirt from my backpack and then the same pair of jeans and hoodie that Sonic washed for me before. I pack all of my stuff back into my backpack, especially my phone and charger. Then, I left Sonia's room.

I went to the kitchen. I wrote a note on a sheet of lined paper I found in the supply closet. It says,

" _I've heard everything you guys said about me. If this isn't going to work out, then there's no point of me staying here. I'm leaving. Goodbye. Signed, Amy Rose."_

I plant the note on the fridge underneath one of the magnets, perceivable for them to see. I grab my backpack, strap it over my shoulders and then ran to the front door. Wiping the tears off my eyes, I exit Sonic's house without even looking back.

I hurriedly walk to a different direction without thinking or realizing where the hell I'm going. Now, I'm back to where I started in day one. I walk from street to street to street. I made it through the same area where Sonic first found me.

Now, I'm back to that poverty area where I slept for the first two nights. The sense of déjà vu appears. With no money to pay for the train fare to travel or to feed myself, it's back to sleeping on the streets and eating from the garbage again. I seriously hate to do these things, though there is nothing else I could do for now, so I must acquiesce for survival for who knows how long. As long as I—

All of the sudden, I feel someone's hand grasping on my shoulder. I gasp in fear, knowing that the karma I expected would come true. I freeze like an ice sculpture. I just stood there, not moving a muscle; I'm too immobilized in heart-pounding terror. I didn't bother to turn around or ask who it is—because I already know.

I hear the walkie-talkie's static sound, followed by that same police officer's familiar voice. She answers to the device,

"I finally found her. I'm taking her there as soon as possible."

This time, I cannot escape.


	11. Fighting

**WARNING: Parental abuse in this chapter.**

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Fighting

I gaze around the police station, where I've been sitting on this bench for about forty-five minutes. This place is crowded. There are a lot of police officers making a bunch of phone calls and deviants—from teenage delinquents to drug dealers; from prostitutes to thieves and murderers in handcuffs—sitting on benches as they get reported. By the looks of their faces, this place is scaring me. Those deviants may carry knives or guns around.

Apart from them, I could see walls covered with missing flyers. One of them is of a missing female white echidna, no older than seven years old; one is of a missing fourteen-year-old male lynx; and, of course, one of them is of me. I stare at my own missing flyer taped on the ivory wall from my bench for countless seconds, trying to distract myself from all the scary deviants in this station.

My heart jumped when I hear screaming profanity from an intoxicated adult female fox: tan fur, long tangled black hair, black jacket, white tank top, black mini-skirt and black boots with heels. Police officers were bringing her in as she struggles into their grasp and her hands are handcuffed behind her back. I reluctantly watch.

"Don't fucking touch me!" The fox screams out. "It's not my fucking fault that bitch was hitting on my man! I was trying to get her away from him!"

"What do we have here?" One police officer asks.

"Public intoxication and assault on another female," The one that has her in his hold answers. "It happened outside of the bar she went to." He then describes her physical violent actions she did.

The drunken fox continues to curse every second and threatening to kill someone. Her violent words are disrupting everyone in the station. The officers then decided to put her behind bars. She continues to scream and curse out obscenities as she gets drag away. I witness the whole thing. Fear continues to rise within me whilst I watch the fox get taken away and her screams fades away until she's out of my sight.

Hearing her words reminds me of Lauren. Even her screaming voice sounded like her. All of those obscenities and violent actions made me think of Lauren. Somehow this makes me wonder if the same fate will ever happen to her sometime in the future. God, I just hope Lauren will end up locked up behind bars, just like that fox—someday. If only Dad will know her true colors.

"You daughter is right over there," The police officer, Officer Stella from last time and the one who took me in here, appears. I jerk my head up towards her. She's leading someone to me. Stella stood right next to me. She gazes down to make eye contact with me. I return the glare with persistent fear. "Amy Rose, your father is here."

Dad—wearing his autumn grey jacket, blue polo shirt, dark jeans and white sneakers that goes with his white fur—shows up from behind Stella as she leaves to give us some alone time. He gazes down at me with a lot of apprehension.

"Amelia…" He says my name—my full name. I hate it when I'm being referred to my real name. "Amelia, where have you been?"

I didn't respond. I'm seriously ticked off at him, not just because he called me "Amelia" instead of "Amy," it's because of all the hell he gave me. He notices my silence. Dad gets down and then he grasps onto both of my shoulders. He shook me, trying to get me to speak up.

"Amelia, please tell me the truth. Where the hell did you go? Do you even know how worried I am when you were gone?"

After my silence, I harshly smack both of his hands away from me. "It's Amy, Dad! Not Amelia! You know I hate that name!" I snap. He shocked by my attitude towards him. "And is Lauren with you?"

"She's waiting outside of the station, why?" Dad responds. Great, I knew she would come along, just to beat more shit out of me. "Ame—Amy, just answer my question. Where were you and where did you go?"

"That's really none of your fucking business," I can't believe I cursed at my dad in the police station. "What you should really be concerned about is what Lauren has been doing to me!"

"What are you talking about?" I'm getting so aggravated when Dad is so oblivious about the violent relationship between Lauren and I. I get off my seat.

"What do you mean 'what am I talking about?!'" I raise my voice at him. "Can't you see what Lauren has been doing to me for these past few years right after she came into the picture?! She has been beating the shit out of me and calling me names! Everything she said to you is all fucking lies, just so she could get away with it!"

The father-and-daughter tension rises; Dad verbally retaliates, "Lauren would never do any of this to you!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I scream out in frustration.

"Don't you use that language on me, Amy! With your mother gone, she's all you and I have left! And you really need to get along with her instead of just accusing her for—"

"I am not accusing her! It's all true, why can't you see that?! Are you blind?! What you're really doing is neglecting me and then enabling her. You're not even a good father at all! And most importantly," I reach to the breaking point, "Where the fuck were you when Mom died?! And why the hell didn't you show up at her funeral?!"

Dad widens his eyes, "I told you, I had work on that day and I couldn't make it!"

"Liar! You never told me what job you have! You're seriously hiding something from me! What is it that you do for a living? Procuring prostitutes? Selling illegal drugs?"

"I would never make money like that! Why would you assume I would do such a thing?!"

"Because of Lauren keeping drugs in her special box! Have you even seen that?!"

Dad tries to alleviate the tone of his voice, "You know it's an invasion of her privacy. Also, Lauren even told me that you stole some of her money from her box before you left. What do you have to say about that?!"

I pause before I continue, "If you won't tell me what job you have, then I won't tell you why! And there's something I want to know and I need to know now," I pause again to take a deep breath, "Were you responsible for Mom's death?!"

Dad's eyes widens with horror, "Why are you assuming that Mom's death was my fault?! I wasn't even home on that time!"

"Sure you did," I don't believe him. I immediately started accusing him, "You poisoned her with medications and then planted the pills there to make it look like she committed suicide by pill overdose and then you left the house. When I called you about her death, you never showed any emotions whatsoever or cared about any shit! Do you even know how I feel about that?! I feel as if you never loved and cared about Mom at all! What kind of father are you?! Where were you when I needed you the most?!" I burst into tears at the last part.

Dad can see me about to cry. He attempts to put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me, "Amy—"

Instantly, I callously push him away from me; the shove is really violent. "I don't want you near me anymore, Aaron!" I impetuously referred to my dad by his first name, "I hate you! I hate you so much!"

This time, Dad didn't even say anything about my sudden abhorrence for her. He just stand there, staying silent and glaring at me to watch me cry right in front of him, the cops and everyone else in the police station. He didn't even utter a single word until he faces towards a different direction. I watch him walk to the front desk, talking to a police officer—male red and grey wolf—behind it.

I barely hear what he's saying to him. Either Dad's telling the wolf officer that he'll take me back home or just leaving me here in the station. For one thing, I really don't want to go back home. Another thing, I don't want to stay here in jail where it's all scary and hazardous. Also, I couldn't go back to sleeping on the streets again. All of these choices are hard to make and it's so complicated. I thought about all the consequences that will happen if I choose any one of these hard decisions.

Then—something else pops into my head. I'm now having this thought. A thought that may—or will—help me escape from all of this pain and agony. This may bring horror to everyone… though if I want to escape, then I have to do it.

Dad turns around from the front desk. Before he could even come near me, I storm towards the front double doors, leaving my backpack on the bench I was sitting on, not bothering to bring them with me since I'm about to perform something that no one will ever forget.

"Amy! Amy Rose!" Dad calls my name. I ignore him, passing through all these cops and deviants. I bolt through the double doors.

By the time I step out of the building and resume bolting away, I hear a familiar female voice—that I hated so much—calling my name.

"Amy!" She runs towards me. I try to run away as fast as I can, but she was faster than me. She already caught up to me, and then she grabs me around the waist to stop me from getting further. Lauren screams at me, "Where do you think you're going?!"

I struggle in her grasp, "Get away from me, Lauren! Don't touch me!" I attempt to free myself from Lauren; she kept the grip tighter.

Lauren, furious for no reason, throws me to the concrete ground. I grunt and scream some more as she starts her usual physical battles on me. "First you stole my money, then you ran away to sleep on the fucking streets, and now you're just going to start everything all over again?!" I can feel her kicks, punches and other blows to my body and face. "Your father was too worried sick to take fucking care of me! It's your fault that this whole shit started in the first place!"

She's not even making sense. It must be the effect of her heroin she's been taking. Lauren continues to hurt me more. I couldn't get up; she keeps pushing me towards the ground. I can see blood and I can taste blood. Her blows are so strong, they can break my bones and/or make my skin bleed. Lauren kept the physical brawl going until…

"Amy! Lauren!" Dad comes out of the police station, running to the two of us. He tries to get her to break off of me. "Lauren, get away from her!"

"Stay out of this, Aaron!" Lauren screams out. She punches me one last time in the stomach before Dad grabs her around the waist and then pulls her off me.

As Lauren struggles in Dad's arms to try and get me again, I get off the ground, and despite all the new injuries she gave me, I run away from the two. I ran as fast as I can, attempting to ignore all the pain on my bleeding skin and aching bones. It hurts so much when I move and run, though it's worth it.

The thought that I just mentioned before bolting out of the police station… this is it. I run to the middle of the road where there are a lot of cars driving by.

I see a truck coming by. The truck is a perfect vehicle to help me escape from all of this agony. It lets out a loud honk.

I wait for the right moment… I take a deep breath, hoping this will work.

"Amy!"

"Amy!"

Two different male voices call out my name. I pay no attention to it. My teary pained eyes are too focused on the oncoming truck.

The truck lets out another honk… and right before it misses me…

I leap right onto the road…

Purposely letting the fast-moving truck run over me… and then crush me right in the middle of the road.

The very last thing I hear are screams coming from the two whom I just heard calling my name right before I made my leap:

My dad, Aaron… and my ex, Sonic.


	12. Healing

**A/N: Sorry for the hiatus. I've been through a lot of personal issues in DA and in real life. However, that's all over; I'm feeling better than ever now that I'm seeking professional help :)**

 **Also, I'm going back to college on 1/19 and I'll try to get this done during my breaks in between my classes. Enjoy.**

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Healing

I blacked out the second I jumped right in the middle of the road, so I could let the truck run over me. I believed I did. That was the point. I was supposed to let the oncoming truck kill me. But—something feels wrong. How come I'm still breathing? How come my heart is still beating? This is not right at all. Why am I not dead yet?

I stir a little and I smell something unfamiliar. The air smells like latex materials. I continue to stir and somehow, I can feel a lot of pain somewhere in my entire body. I feel numb and I can feel some stings all over my skin. I still don't know where I am; although, I feel as if I'm lying down on something soft and something covering me waist down. For the first time in what feels like forever, I open my eyes.

I look around the room despite my blurry vision. The entire place is all white and I got temporarily blinded by the white lights up on the ceiling when I opened my eyes. I meticulously examine the room where I am with my weakened vision.

That's when I realized—I'm in a hospital room.

That explains why I smelled latex. Apart from the scent of medical supplies, I also smell wilted, decaying flowers. It was coming from my left side, so I gaze at where the dying flowers came from. There, on the bedside are a bunch of roses, already dying. Their dried, dark blackish-red petals have fallen off and their stems are bent down.

Also, tied to the railings of the hospital bed I'm lying on are mylar balloons that are already deflated. I follow their strings and look down on the floor where they're lying down, completely flattened out of air. One colorful balloon said "Get Well Soon"; one depressingly sad one, with a frowning face, said "I'm Sorry"; and the last one, the pink one with a birthday cake and confetti, said "Happy Birthday."

Happy Birthday? What? I'm so confused.

I quickly gaze back at the wilted roses. I noticed a tag, or maybe it's a card, is attached to the dead bouquet. I reach to grab it, careful enough to not harm my injuries. The card is in my fingertips and I bring it closer towards myself to read it. It's hand-written and hand-made. The cover said, "To Amy Rose" in pink ink. I open it to read the rest. Inside, there are multiple messages in different handwritings and in different colored inks.

" **Happy Birthday, Amy. Sorry you had to hear everything we said about you before. We never meant it,"** signed by Manic in neon-green ink.

" **I hope you will pull through, Amy. We're really sorry, for all the things we said about you and what you're going through. And Happy Birthday,"** signed by Silver in aqua ink.

" **We're sorry, Rose. Happy Birthday,"** signed by Shadow in red ink.

" **Happy Birthday, babe—I mean, Rose. And sorry for calling you crazy. Never meant it,"** signed by Scourge in dark green ink.

" **Amy Rose, I'm really sorry. And please, be strong for me and the rest of the gang. I'm really sorry you had to hear our conversation about you. We never meant to hurt you. We really care about you and we really hope you will pull through. Most importantly, Happy Birthday,"** signed by Sonic in blue ink.

All of these messages from Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Manic and Scourge are all apologies and Happy Birthday greetings. I suddenly feel touched by their messages and them allegedly sending me roses and balloons, but at the same time, I'm still perplexed.

I listlessly close the card as I stare back at the dead roses and deflated balloons. By judging how they all look, it makes me wonder how long I have been blacked out. Most importantly… did I miss my own birthday?

Am I… already 17?

"Sweetie?" I hear a calm female voice talking to me. I turn to the doorway and there stands a nurse. She's a slender panda with her long straight black hair tied into a half-ponytail and her green eyes are staring straight at me. She's wearing lavender scrubs, white sneakers and there's a jade bracelet on her right wrist. She walks up closer to me, standing right next to me on the left side of the bed.

The nurse places her hand on my forehead. She smiles warmly at me, "It's such a miracle that you made it."

"What happened to me?" I ask her while putting the card back into the roses, "How long was I out?"

Her smile turns solemn. "You were in a coma after when that truck ran you over. You were out for about five months."

I jump up from the bed when hearing her answer. "Five months?!"

She nods, "I'm afraid so. And I couldn't help but to noticed that your birthday passed three months ago. Happy belated birthday, by the way. Five gentlemen came over here on that time to send you these roses and balloons as gifts. They seem really caring about you." She pauses.

During her silence, I turn my head away from her, staring down at the covers and sheets of the hospital bed and my matching hospital gown. I can't believe I was in a coma—for five months. Five fucking months! I should've been dead by now. Or worse, suffer from some kind of permanent brain damage. How can I survive this?

"Also," the nurse touches my shoulder. I return the eye contact with her. "I was the one who provided you health during your coma. I'm Nurse Jadelynn, but you may call me Jade," she lifts up her wrist to show me her jade bracelet, "like this beautiful bracelet I have on me."

I stare at Jade's bracelet. It is beautiful. It's literally shining and sparkling underneath my eyes. I inquisitively asked, "What is the meaning of the jade, if I may ask?"

Jade lets down her wrist. "A jade is a green stone that is believed it provides wisdom and peace. But most of all, it provides good health; it is believed that this green stone is the healing stone for all sorts of illnesses, ailments, diseases, injuries and other near-fatal medical conditions, like your coma. That's why I wear this all the time."

I became astonished by Jadelynn's lecture. "So you're saying…"

She smiles, "Yes. You can say that I've brought you health again, with two jades. One is me and the other is my bracelet." Jade and I share mutual warming smiles. We even chuckle subtly.

After our moment, Jade's smile abruptly turn solemn again. "But on the serious note," my smile of warmth fades away, too, "you were in a very critical condition. I had a note from the doctor and from your father that the way the truck ran you over seems as if you were trying to kill yourself."

The mentioning of suicide is swimming inside my head. My heart is shattering. I groan silently and then cover my face with my hands. I can hear Jade pulling a seat so she could sit right next to me. She then put her hand on my shoulder. She softly tells me, "It's okay, you can tell me. It's my job."

I sniff and wept for countless minutes. It's like me opening up to Sonic again. I hate opening this up because the more I do, the worst I feel. The panda nurse begins to rub my upper back for comfort as I just sit in bed and weep. I can hear her shushing me very gently. I pick my head up from my hands.

Without returning her gaze, I tell her, "It's complicated to explain." I sniff once more. "All I can say is that my dad is very neglectful since my mom's death; my drug-addict stepmother is physically and emotionally abusive towards me; and I've been running away from home and became homeless for a few days. And I had to do something to escape from all of it, so I—I jumped right in the middle of the road to let the truck run me over." I sniff again, "That's all I can say."

I suppose that Jade has been listening to me, but she is speechless. Then, out of nowhere—she pulls me closer to her, bringing me to a hug even though I barely know her, minus the fact she's been taking care of me during my comatose. It took me a few seconds to return the embrace; I wrap my arms around her as well. This feels more comforting than I had with Sonic.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Jade whispers to me. She continues to hug me.

Seconds later, we broke apart. We make eye contact. I wipe the tears off my eyes. Jade places her hand on my shoulder. She informs me, "I can understand what you're going through, but suicide is never the answer. It's a permanent damage and once it's done, you cannot change it. And this whole situation about your father and stepmother seems really serious."

"Is there a way to handle my father's neglect and stepmother's abuse?" I ask her. "I really don't want to go back to them."

Nurse Jade lets her hand down from my shoulder. She lets out a silent sigh before informing me some more serious notes, "Since you're still a minor, I'm afraid I'm going to have to make a report to the Child Protective Services about this. We really care about your safety and we want to make sure you're entirely safe and free from all kinds of abuse."

"What will happen to them once you report them?"

"That depends on their severity of child abuse and child negligence." Jade pauses. "And there's something else you need to know."

"What?"

"While you were comatose, the doctors and I have found out that you were pregnant."

There's silence.

My eyes are completely widened in total shock.

"Pregnant?" I'm too speechless to exclaim. "I'm… pregnant?" I'm about to cry.

"Were pregnant," She emphasizes on the first word, "You're not pregnant anymore. Many weeks ago, you already had a miscarriage and we had to get that fetus out of you before it affects your health. I have to say, it was really bloody and brutal."

I can't believe that I was pregnant. I thought about what happened to me before. My violent mood swings with Sonic and the others… my crazy cravings and severe hunger… me vomiting and then fainting. It all makes sense now. I wonder who—and that's when it struck me.

I remember what happened the other day. Those three guys—the hedgehog and his followers, the shrew and the wildcat—I can't even remember their names. They dragged me into an alley—and that's where all three of them raped me violently. They must've impregnated me when they violated me, but how is that possible? How can I get pregnant that fast after they raped me?

And now—my first baby is gone. However, I'm not looking forward to carry a child in the first place, even if the kid's father was one of the rapists. Actually—I'm kind of glad that the baby is gone. Think of all the karma I would receive if anyone sees me carrying a child that belonged to a rapist.

I fearfully gaze at Jade. I told her, "I was raped before. I was gang-raped by three guys once, about the next day after I first ran away from home."

Jade is more shocked and concerned. "Did you make a police report about that?"

I pause, and then shook my head. "I didn't. I didn't have the courage to do so."

"Amy Rose," she finally said my name. "You should know this and this is very imperative for your safety. No matter how serious and hazardous your situation is, regardless if it's assault of any kind, you should always report it to the police. Keeping it all yourself would put you in more risk. As of now, unless if it's doable we could still find some DNA in you and/or if you could still remember their identity, we cannot locate and report those suspects who have sexually assaulted you."

"Honestly," not honest, though. This is more of a lie. "I don't remember their faces or their names—or what they look like. It was all a blur." Then, I recall the info she just gave me about coming clean. "And—I guess I'm just too afraid of the consequences they and I would receive."

With more warmth and concern, Jade tells me, "Fear and karma are something you should never focus on first. It's your safety and health."

I remain silent. Then, I nod, knowing that I now understand what she is saying.

Suddenly, our moment with just the two of us came to a temporary end when someone else appears in the doorway. A knocking on the opened door is heard. "Nurse Jadelynn?"

The panda gazes at the doorway when she heard her name calling. There, on the doorway, is probably the doctor. He's an ocelot with glasses and his every day doctor's uniform. He enters the room, strolling closer to me and standing by the bed. Nurse Jade stands up from her seat.

"How's Amy Rose doing, Nurse? I'm just here to check up on her." The doctor asks her.

"She's doing fine, Dr. Forest. She just pulled through from her coma." Jade introduces me to Dr. Forest, who also provided me health during my comatose. The doctor and I exchanged a handshake, though I still feel weak. Jade continues, "I told her everything."

Forest makes eye contact with me, "It's good to hear that you made it. You're lucky that you're one in a thousand who survived a five-month coma."

"Yeah, lucky me," I sarcastically answer quietly.

Jade gave me a look; she's mouthing a question to me, wondering if it's okay for her to inform the doctor about my condition and my previous situations that led me here. Now that we've talked, I guess it's okay for her to tell him. After all, Jade is the one who saved my life, so that means I can already rely on her. I can see Jade smiling a very subtle smile before turning towards Dr. Forest.

She makes eye contact with him. "Doctor, Amy Rose and I had a talk with each other and there's something you should know. However, I think it's best if we talk about it outside of her room."

Dr. Forest nods. In addition, he informs her that he has to let her know about something as well anyway. He gazes at me, "Amy, Nurse Jade and I will be back. There are a few things we need to take care of before we can let you go. For now, you need some rest."

I comply. I told them to take their time. The next thing I knew, they left the room, leaving me all alone in this hospital room.

I stay in bed, just as they said. I watch the clock ticking by and I stare at the ceiling, walls and through the window until I get really bored. I close my eyes, trying to at least get some sleep or something, despite that I'm not even tired.

More minutes pass by. And then this happens:

The doctor ocelot and the nurse panda both reenter the room after a short time, or that's what I think. This time, Nurse Jade brought in a wheelchair. Dr. Forest informs me, "Amy, there's someone here who would like to see you. And he said he wants to talk to you. It's very crucial for him."

"Who?"

He told me who. I'm reluctant to see him, albeit nothing can stop me from averting myself from him. If he needs to see me then I have no choice, no matter how many "no's" I have to answer.

Both Forest and Jade meticulously aid me from my bed. Very gently, they put me in the wheelchair. All together, I get wheeled out of the room. We, the three of us, went through the hospital corridors, down the elevator, and now at this waiting room that is entirely empty—except for two.

I carefully focus on who those two are. It's them. Disdain is interfering with me again when I see them.

They noticed me. They get up from the seats they were sitting on and they stroll closer to me.

Dr. Forest informs them, "Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog. Your daughter is here."

"She's not my real daughter," The woman I abhor snarls.

With so much abhorrence and disdain in me, I glare at my father and stepmother, Aaron and Lauren.


	13. Listening

**Warning: A possible tear-jerking story.**

* * *

Listening

Dr. Forest and Nurse Jadelynn left me all alone with my father and Lauren. I continue to glare at them with persistent disdain. Aaron is wearing casual clothes and Lauren, with her unkempt sky-blue hair and fur, wrinkled skin and bagged eyes, is wearing a black leather jacket with dirty jeans and brown boots.

"Amy," Aaron—I'd rather call him that instead of "Dad"—begins. He sounds concerned. "Why did you jump right in front of the oncoming truck for?"

I refuse to answer. I was about to turn my wheelchair around and then wheel away from them. Lauren, harshly, grabs onto the wheelchair's handle to pull me back to them.

"Listen, you stupid bitch." Lauren whispers to me, almost in a growl. I'm about to lose it when she called me that.

"Lauren, please," Aaron urges her before returning his eye contact towards me. "Amy, please answer me. We almost lost you there."

"Since when do you care?" I coldly remark.

Lauren cuts in, "Since you almost fucking died right in the middle of the road." Aaron touches her arm, possibly to prevent her from hitting me or something. Although, Lauren slaps and shoves his hand away. "Don't touch me. I wasn't even going to hit her."

"Why is she even here anyway?" I ask him, in regards with Lauren.

"It's because we have something to say to you. That's why. But first," Aaron seems more concerned than ever. "Why did you jump in front of the truck for?"

I pause. Then, without showing any emotion, I told them, "I was trying to kill myself. Because of all the shit you two put me through." I face to Lauren, "And you did say that you wish for me to die in the beginning. So I granted your wish." I face to the both of them. "Are you happy now? Are you both happy that your only daughter has tried to commit suicide?!" I begin to shed tears and break into sobs. "I bet you're both fucking happy about that—because you two don't even care about me! Both of you really hate me for no reason and all you care about are yourselves! And why can't you both understand HOW MUCH PAIN YOU HAVE BROUGHT TO A SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD THAT CAUSED HER TO LIVE IN THE STREETS?!"

I pause to painfully cry; it's even hurting my injuries. Aaron and Lauren didn't even say anything. I bet they're not even listening. After the silence in between all three of us, I finally hear this.

"Amy, I'm sorry," Aaron says. I pick my head up to gaze at him with tears in my eyes. Lauren, obviously, doesn't even care. "I never meant for this to happen."

I wanted to yell at him for allegedly being a stupid liar. My agonizing sobs are too much for me to fight back. I try to turn my wheelchair around to avoid them. Lauren turns me back around, with more force than before. She growls, "Listen to us."

Aaron resumes. He let out a sigh, "You were right." I perk my ears up as I listen carefully to what he is about to say. "You were right about what we have been doing to you. I admit it, it was wrong of me to be dishonest to you."

"So you did kill Mom?" I impetuously ask.

"No," he firmly answers, "She really killed herself." I'm about to cry when Aaron mentioned my mom, Emma. "But pertaining to her, there's something you should know."

Aaron starts to tell his tale. I listen"

"Years before you were born, Emma and I had a baby together that was meant to be your older sister. Her name was Emily Violet. When she was only a few months old, she died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. After baby Emily's death, Emma went into severe grief which led to her major depression until she unexpectedly became pregnant with you. By the time you were born, we vowed not to mention Emily Violet and pretend that she never existed."

I can't believe it.

Aaron continues, "However, our plan to not mention Emily has worsened. As we were raising you, all Emma could think about was Emily Violet and her guilt for causing her SIDS. Day and night, all she cared about is bringing her back, despite how many times I tried to tell her that she's gone and we have you now.

"I loved her, but at the same time, I couldn't handle her depression any longer. When you were about six years old," he pauses, "I did the unthinkable—and I started to have an affair with Lauren."

With her breath smelling like meth and heroin, Lauren cuts in, "Before that suicidal mother of yours, I was really his first love… until he decided to leave me for her. Your mother was better than me; all caring and more loving and shit. And I—I was all abusive and selfish. I hated Emma before. I hated how that Miss Perfect was a better bitch than me at everything. When I found out Aaron and Emma had a baby together and then got married, I was all broken up and fucking jealous. I was all heartbroken and drinking a ton of alcohol because of it."

I'm perplexed. None of this is making sense. Aaron continues, "What Lauren said was right. I have dated her before I married your mother. But somewhere when you were just a child, I couldn't stand Emma's constant depression about Emily. So I called Lauren, told her I want to date her again, and we even went to the deep end by having a sexual relationship without letting Emma know.

"Everything has worsened when Emma found out my about my relationship with Lauren. Emma became so distraught about me and her—that her depression went more severe than ever. And—that's how she committed suicide later on.

"The reason why I didn't show up at her funeral is because of my sudden lack of love and care for her. The reason why I was barely home and never told you about my job is because," Aaron takes a deep breath… and he finally reveals what he was working for money. It's too horrifying and disgusting for me to explain it.

I didn't say anything. I can't believe how dishonest Aaron has become to me. He's such a terrible father, that I should just disown him. He notices my expression. He tries to get my attention, "Amy, do you understand now? I'm really sorry for all of this. I'm sorry for being truly selfish and neglectful."

"I heard you," I snarl at him. "I just can't believe how much of a lying, unfaithful asshole you are." I turn to Lauren. I yell at her, "And what about you?! What else have you been lying about?! And most importantly, why the hell have you been beating me up every day and night?!"

Lauren abruptly stood up from her seat with her hand up in the air, preparing herself to slap me for screaming at her. I brace myself. However—I didn't feel her hand hitting my face. She stays in that position, as if she's resisting herself or something. I could sense that her arm and hand is trembling in resistance. That's the first time Lauren has done that.

Suddenly, I hear her sob. I look at her as she sits back down on her seat with her hands covering her face. I continue to stare at her with no emotions whatsoever. For the first time for so long, I watch my abusive stepmother breaking down into tears. I expected Aaron to wrap his arms around her to comfort her while enabling her. He didn't.

Lauren lets out a loud sniff as she picks her head up to look at me. Her brown eyes are all bloodshot from her own tears. "Amy… forgive me."

I coldly glare at her, still showing no emotions despite that she's all—or at least I think she is—apologetic. Lauren resumes, "Please forgive me, Amy Rose. The way I treated you, it's because—by the look of you, you reminded me of your mother, whom I despised before her death. I hated Emma in the first place because of my fucking jealousy of her. That perfect bitch. She took Aaron away from me—and they both have kids together while I'm fucking infertile from all that booze I've been drinking.

"That's why I've been hurting you every day since Aaron remarried me. I see you as Emma Rosaline and I wanted to beat her up for being all Miss Fucking Perfect. I also have this anger issue. Not sure if it's from my alcoholism or drugs, but it just comes to me for no reason." Lauren pauses to sniff. "And it's hard to believe how much your father still loves me when I'm still all selfish and abusive from our previous relationship. So overall, Amy—I'm sorry for it all. I'm sorry for everything I've done to you. I would have been a better stepmother to you if it weren't for all the booze, drugs and jealousy and anger issues I have towards your mother. Do you forgive me now?"

By the look of her face, Lauren seems apologetic. I still don't buy it. I know deep down that she still hates me. It's really shocking that she abuses me just because I look like my mother whom she hated. I don't want to forgive her or my father. What they have done to me, I cannot forget, so therefore I cannot forgive them.

Aaron asks me, "So Amy, do you understand it all now? Do you forgive us?"

I'm silently immobilized in disdain. Finally, I tell them, "No! Because I know deep within yourselves, you two are still a couple of selfish and neglectful assholes. And what's the point of forgiving you if I can't forget it all? So, no; I can't forgive you."

Aaron and Lauren, the latter has ceased her sobbing, look at me with some sort of anger that I can't even tell what it is. Then, something else appears inside my head. I immediately change the subject.

"I was given something for my birthday during my five-month coma by my ex and his friends. Why didn't you give anything on my birthday while I was unconscious?"

Aaron gave me a stern look. "You mean Sonic?"

"Yes, I mean Sonic and his friends and brother!" He disregarded my last question.

Both Aaron and Lauren are silent until he breaks it. "I threatened them not to come near you again."

"Threatened?!" I repeated with wide eyes.

Lauren answers, "Who's the bad father now? What he did was the right thing."

"I wasn't talking to you!" I yell at her. I glance back at him, "Why did you threatened Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Manic and Scourge for?!"

Aaron answers with alleged anger, "We even received the news that you were pregnant during your coma and that your unborn baby died in miscarriage. I knew right away that they're undesirables; I knew Sonic was never meant to be with you! I know that they raped you and then impregnated you during your runaway adventures! So the last time I ran to them during visiting hours, I told them that if they ever come near you again, I will pull a knife at them. That's why!"

"That wasn't them!" I scream out, "Yes, I was fucking raped, but it was not them! It was three different guys that dragged me into an alley that I don't even know who they are! What is wrong with you?! Why would you want to pull a knife at them for?!"

Lauren retaliates, "Don't deny it! I knew you would go that far into sleeping with five different guys as you slept on the streets and then risk yourself into becoming a teen mom!" Finally, she forcibly shoves my shoulder. I wince in pain, "You're such a fucking slut. Performing prostitution for money and sex."

"But I didn't even—!"

"That's enough out of you!" Aaron scolds at me, "All we know is that you will never see Sonic and those guys ever again! I already sliced Sonic's arm, I'm not afraid to stab him as well!"

I'm entirely speechless. All of this anger I have within myself is making me cry again. I begin in sob, not only in sadness, in anger as well. God, I hate my father and Lauren so much.

Aaron concludes, "If it'll make you any happier—I already filed for a divorce."

I don't want to hear it anymore. I don't even care if they are getting a divorce, it won't change anything.

Suddenly, I hear someone coming towards us. I turn around and I see Nurse Jadelynn stepping closer to us until she's standing beside me. Jade seems really solemn. "Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog?"

Aaron and Lauren gaze at her. Jade tells them, "I need to let you know that I've already called Child Protective Services in regards with Amy Rose… and they agreed to take her out of your custody."

I'm surprised to hear that. I glance at Dad and Stepmom to hear their responses. Aaron lets out a sigh and then said, "Take her away. I want nothing to do with her now."

Without even saying anything else, he and Lauren stood up from their seats. Aaron grabs something from underneath his seat; he harshly and nonchalantly threw it in front of me as it hits the floor. It's my backpack that I left at the police station before I attempted suicide. Believe it or not, all of my stuff seems to still be in there during my comatose. Lastly, both Aaron and Lauren face towards the exit without even saying goodbye to me. Then, they're gone.

I gaze at Nurse Jade, who is now feeling really sorry for me. She lays her hand onto my shoulder.

I ask her, "What's going to happen to me now? Am I going to live in a foster family from now on?" I became apprehensive about this.

She answers, "None at all. In fact, I have another way to accommodate you instead of living in the streets."

Jade says that outside of her nursing job, she owns a place where runaway youths like me stay for safety. She says she's allowed to have me stay there. She says it's what's best for me because she really cares about me and my safety.

That place—a homeless youth shelter.


	14. Entering

Entering

After being told by Jadelynn the Panda that she is going to put me into the homeless shelter that she said she owns for runaway youths, I became anxious about this. I worry about what the other homeless kids like me would look like. Will I be able to get along with them? What if they hate me?

Jade didn't take me there yet. First, as soon as that heated argument with Dad and Lauren ended, she and Dr. Forest became aware about me jumping in front of the truck that nearly made me die on the road and then put me into a five-month coma. They became worried and concerned that it was allegedly my suicide attempt. Because of this—I was put into a 72-hour suicide watch.

It was horrifying. I really have no words to describe what I was going through as I was on watch for 3 days straight, all locked up in a small room.

Anyway, after that whole being-on-watch thing, I've spent several more days recovering in the hospital. Apart that I've lost my baby, that I didn't even knew I had after that rape incident, to a bloody miscarriage while I was unconscious, none of my bones are broken and I have no signs of head trauma. Call that miraculous despite how hard that truck came at me. All I had are bruises and superficial cuts; I still have them albeit they are fading away.

By the time I was discharged from the hospital and then gathered all my things that are still in my backpack—that Aaron crudely threw at me before—Jade and her husband, August the Polar Bear, drove me in their passenger van—that can fit for 12—to their destination. During the long drive, I depressingly sit at the very back of the passenger van with my backpack resting on my lap, staring at nothing but the trees, buildings, cars, streetlamps and inhabitants passing by through the window.

"Are you alright there, Amy?" Jade asks me from the passenger seat of the van.

Without averting my eyes from the window, I tell her, "I'm fine. Just really anxious." Which is true; I have been anxious about living in the homeless shelter ever since Jade mentioned this to me.

"Don't worry," Jade answers, "Everything will be okay. All of these kids who live there are just like you. And you're not really alone; they have difficult lives to deal with before and during their own homelessness." I can feel her smile warmly.

I didn't respond, nor was I ignoring her. I heard every word Jade said to me. I thought about it and still, the pros and cons are interfering with my social anxiety of being around others I don't even know.

"We're here now," August, who was behind the wheel, answers. As he and Jade get out of the van, I step out of the car door they opened for me. I step out, pull my backpack over my shoulder, and then I stare up at the exterior of the homeless youth shelter while standing by the parked vehicle.

The outside of the building seems different than I anticipated. I was expecting a more dilapidated building with only one story. Instead, this building on the outside seems more intact and clean and it is three stories high, not one.

"Wow," I inaudibly said to myself.

"Come inside, Amy," Jade and August are already at the shelter's entrance. Jade says, "I would like you to meet the other kids. I can assure you, you're going to like them."

Before I comply, I take a deep breath so that my anxiety will escape. I walk to the entrance and August closes the door before the cold draft enters into the building. I stood in the foyer where the front desk is located in front of me, gazing at the interior of the shelter. Just like on the outside, the inside is also very clean and not dilapidated. The walls are painted in childish colors, but no one seems to care about that.

August and Jade lead me to the main room, which they'd like to call the "Hangout Room." From all the way there, I can hear either rock music blasting or the TV with its volume turned up really loud. (They have TVs in homeless shelters now?) I can also hear other kids talking and laughing incoherently. The sounds of laughter is making me sick, especially when I'm not in the mood for something fun and humorous.

We made it to the Hangout Room.

"Everyone, quiet down. We have an announcement," August calls out to the kids in the room, who have idly stopped their current activities. The volumes from the music and TV turned down to very low. August says, "Thank you."

Jade stands behind me, resting her hands onto my shoulders, "Kids, we have a new member staying here today." Pairs of eyes are glaring at me. My heartbeat is racing from the social anxiety. Jade continues, "This is Amy Rose the Hedgehog. She'll be moving in here starting from today, so that she won't have to suffer through a lot out on the cold streets. Feel free to make her feel welcome and like home."

Nervously, I stare back at the homeless kids. All of them are about in their teen years and all of them look completely different by appearance. There are two male echidnas and two female chinchillas.

One echidna is ocean blue with silver eyes and wearing one of those hipster glasses and a fedora, including a sweater and light blue jeans.

The other echidna is ivory with ebony eyes and wearing a polo shirt and jeans with little tears around the hem.

The two chinchilla girls remind me of those stereotypical duos with different personalities and styles.

One chinchilla is yellow with pink eyes and her hair is dyed pink and tied into a ponytail. She's wearing a hot pink shirt and torn jeans with a different shade of pink leggings underneath it.

The other chinchilla is grey with purple eyes and her hair is dyed purple into an emo style. She's wearing a black T-shirt with a purple swirly pattern and dark-colored jeans. She even has bandages wrapped around both of her wrists.

As I continue to look at them, Jade introduces me to each one of the teens. "Amy, this is Evan Skye," she points me to the blue echidna; "Gavin Snow," points to the white echidna; "Satellite Nova," the girly bright yellow and pink chinchilla; "and Cloudy Mist," lastly, the gothic-emo grey and purple chinchilla.

All four of them responds differently:

"Hi."

"Hey."

"Whatever." This one is obviously from Cloudy Mist. She said it very dryly.

I can't even tell is they're being nice to me or something. Then, I noticed that Gavin Snow is the only one who just waved and never said anything. He's entirely silent. Not sure if he's really shy or just doesn't want to speak.

Jade and August look at me. August informs me, "There's something you should know: Gavin doesn't speak that much. Because of a personal trauma he went through before, he refuses to speak."

Jade finishes off, "He's a selective mute."

I never even heard of that before. August then lectured me that selective mutism, formally called elective mutism, is when someone chose not to speak or speak that often due to many things, such as social anxiety or from suffering a severe traumatic experience. I wonder how they, and I, would be able to communicate with Gavin if he never speaks.

August finishes, "Don't worry about Gavin. Jade and I provided therapeutic help for him."

I continue to stare at them. By the looks of their faces, somewhere inside of me is telling me that not one of them will get along with me if we're all completely different. I mean, look at us: one hipster, one mute, one brightly optimistic girly girl and one darkly pessimistic goth. And me? I don't even know what I am.

"Is it just the four of you?" I ask them.

Evan answers, "There's one more, too. His name is Jack. But—he's not here at this time."

Satellite, with an annoying valley-girl accent, finishes for him, "He's, like, out somewhere, hanging out or something. No offense, but Jack is, like, into causing a lot of trouble, or whatever."

Cloudy lets out a loud and annoyed groan. She speaks with a dry and pained tone, "Stop saying 'like' and 'whatever' every time you fucking speak!"

Satellite retaliates, "At least I don't think about death!"

Cloudy storms up from the floor she was sitting on; all of us jump when Cloudy is about to attack Satellite after hearing her harsh remark. Evan, Jade and August immediately get towards the chinchilla girls before starting a fight.

"Satellite! Cloudy!" August shouts out. In wide-eye shock, I watch him break them apart by grasping Cloudy away from Satellite. Satellite is held steady by Jade and Evan.

"Girls, remember!" Jade informs them sternly, "Part of being in this youth shelter is to get along. And please, don't bring this up at this time, especially when we have a new resident living here." She's referring to me. Satellite and Cloudy glare at each other with apparent abhorrence. Then, they both took deep breaths and in seconds, their hatred became evanescent.

"Sorry," they both say to one another and then to the rest. August lets go of Cloudy and Evan and Jade both let go of Satellite.

I'm still shocked at what I just saw. Jade and August notice my expression. Jade tells me, "I deeply apologize about this, Amy. Sometimes, these two girls don't normally get along."

"I can see that."

Jade steps closer to me. "Come on, sweetie. We'll give you the grand tour of this place." August takes my backpack as he and his wife shows me around the shelter.

For the next forty-five minutes, the married bear couple showed me all of the rooms in this building. It has everything.

A large bedroom with multiple bunk beds where I will be sleeping in with the others.

A kitchen where they store food donated by the goodwill, that even includes a fridge, oven, microwave and dining tables.

A bathroom with multiple shower stalls, toilets and sinks. It also includes donated toiletries, bathing products, hair care products and feminine care products for girls.

A room that provides all sorts of donated reading materials and books; it even provides GED tutoring for school dropouts.

And even a room where they store used and donated clothes, also from the goodwill. This room is like a mini-thrift shop, except we don't even have to pay.

August and Jade informed me about their strict curfews. We absolutely have to be back at the shelter precisely at 10 pm. We may receive consequences if any one of us comes back later than 10 pm.

Jade says, "The most important part of staying in this shelter is that we accept all kinds of homeless minors. We also forbid all types of violent and severe aggressions that can happen in this building; we really care about one's own safety and if any severe physical, mental and sexual abuse or harassment appears, regardless of what it's about, then that individual may face serious consequences. We must also respect each other's personal identity, such as sexual orientation. This is also a LGBT-friendly place. Do you understand, Amy?"

I meticulously heard everything she and August explained in this household. I nod my head and answer, "Yes."

Jade and August smile at me. "Great," Jade says, "I really hope you enjoy your stay here, Amy Rose." She faces to her husband, "August, honey. Will you take her to the bedroom, so you could set up a bed for her? I'm going to prepare some food for later tonight."

August answers, "Of course." He gestures me to follow him, "Come on, Amy." I comply.

At the bedroom, I picked out my own bed—a bottom bunk—and was given some pillows, a mattress sheet and some blankets from the storage. August sets it all for me. Once it was neatly done, I tell him that I'm already feeling tired. He allows me to stay in the room to rest and that he'll let me know when food is ready.

So for the next couple or so hours, I stay in bed, choosing to not talk to the rest of the teens yet.

Hours later…

All of us ate already. During dinner, I stayed isolated from the teens because I was still not ready to get along with them yet. I barely ate that much though; I guess I was still too depressed. While everyone is sitting in the same table, I was all alone in a different separated table. I wanted to be alone. I don't know why. I remained isolated from them for the rest of the day, just like back at Sonic's place before I left without letting them know.

For the rest of the day, I showered in one of the shower stalls in the bathroom. I let my damp pink hair dry itself. I put on a new set of clothes from the goodwill, a pair of thin sweatpants and a grey hoodie. After getting myself washed up and wearing a new—or old clothes since they're mostly used—I spent the rest of my time staying in the book room, where I read some old paperback novels, used textbooks and I even looked through some GEDs and other school-related sources.

Reading through these textbooks and GED books made me think about going back to school. However, it's too late for me to return to high school, so it's best of I plan to get a GED somewhere in the future. I didn't dropped out of school because I hated learning, I personally do like learning. If it weren't for Dad and Lauren, things would've been better for me in school.

Anyway, Jade and August told us that it was time for bed now and time for the doors to be locked up until the next morning (it's a highly secured shelter). I slept in my bunk for about a few hours.

Somewhere around in between midnight and 2 am, I woke up with my bladder feeling full. Without making a sound to wake up the rest of the teens, I pull the blankets off me and I get off my bunk. Remaining silent as a mouse, I open the door, walk through the corridor and then make my way to the bathroom. I get on one of the toilets. By the time I emptied it all out, I flush and then I get to the sink to wash my hands.

Abruptly—this happened. I hear the entrance door opening and the alarm blares out.

I jump at the sound of the alarm. It's so loud that it's blaring throughout the entire building. I quickly dry my hands and then immediately step out of the bathroom. Without thinking, I went to the foyer where the entrance is. My heart is pounding in fright when I see a dark figure standing by the closed door.

"Who are you?!" I say to the figure in panic.

"What are you talking about?!" The figure said in a masculine voice.

At that moment, I hear clamoring. Jade, August and everyone else stepped out of their rooms, in their pajamas and opened robes, as they walk to where me and the alleged intruder are standing. August shuts off the alarm and then he turns on the light. All of us look to see who was "breaking and entering" the shelter.

The guy that I'm looking at right now, the one who set off the alarm when entering the secured door, is a male hedgehog. His fur is light tan with dark amber eyes. His quills are styled into multiple spikes with its tips dyed black and are hidden underneath a black knit cap. He's also wearing a black jacket, jeans and a pair of brown boots. His attire resembles a typical intruder.

Jade steps up towards him. She scolds him, "Jackson! You were supposed to be back here a few hours ago! What did we say about our 10:00 curfew?"

Huh? Is this the Jack that everyone else mentioned to me earlier? No offense, but he doesn't even look like a homeless runaway youth. He seems to be slightly older than me, about in his early 20s.

Jack let out an exasperated sigh, "Well sorry!" With a terrible attitude, he made up an excuse that seems to be a lie.

Jadelynn doesn't seem so amused with his actions and excuses, "Unbelievable!"

August scolds at him when stepping closer towards him, "Jack, if you want to stay here for as long as you live, then you have to comply with our rules! Staying out late at night is a serious issue for all of us! And look," he shows him every one of us of how much panic he gave us for no reason, "You made us get up at almost two in the morning for one of your antics. You really need to show some consideration for everyone else in this household."

Jack rolls his eyes in nastiness. Then, he gazes at me. I return the eye contact with fear, "Who is this? Is she the one who just snitched at me?"

"What?!" I became insulted. I fearfully stammer, "No! I didn't even do anything! I was in the bathroom and all of the sudden, the alarm went off!"

Instantly, he glares at me and then nearly put his hands on me. I gasp. He's probably angry at the fact that he believed I was the one who called him out by pulling the alarm. I was the only one who showed up before he walked in, but that wasn't even my fault.

Jade defends me right away, making sure he stays apart from me, "Jackson, that's no way how we treat others, even if she's new. Now please, I have a nursing shift tomorrow morning. I can't let any of this interfere with me before work."

Jack scoffs, "Whatever." And without looking back, he pushes his way to the bedroom. He finally turns back around, "And stop calling me 'Jackson!' That's not even my fucking real name!" Jack faces back and resumes without saying another word.

All of us are silent by him. August breaks the silence, "I seriously don't know what to do with that kid. No matter how hard we tried to help him, he keeps getting into more trouble than before."

Jade heard him. She tells us, "Alright everyone, let's get back to bed." As they disperse, I remain scared and sad. Jade notices me. She comforts me by putting her hand onto my shoulder. She whispers, "It's okay, Amy," then, pulls me into a warming hug.

I didn't return the hug, I'm too scared. Now, I'm afraid of sleeping in the bedroom with Jack walking in late at night. By judging his attitude towards Jade and August and the way he looked at me, as if he was about to attack me for something I didn't even do, I can already tell that something is not right about him.

And it's not just him. Something tells me that maybe this isn't going to work out for me.

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 **A/N: Jadelynn, August, Evan Skye, Gavin Snow, Satellite Nova, Cloudy Mist and "Jack" the Hedgehog are all created by me.**


	15. Revealing

**A/N: Dear Guest (whose comment I deleted),**

 **First of all, please do not jump into conclusions. I never had the intention for the homeless youths, especially Jack, to abuse Amy. That was NEVER meant to be in the story and you nearly made me ruin the surprise for my readers. And please stop assuming and making up slander that Amy is going to be raped again, abused by Jack, and then commit suicide which, by the way, is also NEVER the intention of this story. So please stop coming into conclusions without even thinking properly. :/**

 **To my readers, you might want to cry as you read along in this chapter. :c**

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Revealing

After the last night's incident—when Jack snuck into the shelter in the middle of the night—I was too afraid to sleep in my own bunk with the others. Instead, I took my pillows and sheets and I transferred myself to the wrap around couch in the Hangout Room. I slept right on the couch for the rest of the night; the cushions were really soft and its leather scent fills in my air, putting me into sleep. I slept like a baby.

The next morning, I woke up with this:

"Hey! New girl!" One of the homeless teens shouts out before I feel my blanket being pulled off of me. I moan in complaint, not wanting to wake up from the comfy couch. "Get off the damn couch!" Instantly, a pillow is thrown to my head.

When the pillow hits the top of my head, I immediately wake up and sat up on the couch. Groggily, I look to see who it was. Standing there right in front of me, I see Jack the Hedgehog in his T-shirt and pajama pants and his arms are crossed.

"What do you want from me?" I ask him, lethargically and timidly.

"You owe me for what happened last night," Jack said, coldly, "Anyway," he gestures his head, cocking it towards the kitchen. "You're missing breakfast. You better get off the couch before the rest starts eating your food."

From the kitchen, I can smell eggs mixed with either bacon or sausage. The aroma is sending me indulgence. Before I leave, I look at Jack, "Why do you want me off the couch for? And what's with the attitude?"

Jack rudely disregards my questions, "Do you want your breakfast or not?"

Without saying anything, I head to the kitchen. There, I sat alone in one of the dining tables and ate my eggs, bacon and sausage alone. For a drink, I realized that there's coffee, so I poured myself a cup and added some cream and sugar. As I eat my breakfast, I started thinking about that a-hole, Jack. I don't know what his deal is; I don't know what he has against me. Is he still pissed off when he accused me of snitching his for sneaking into the shelter hours after curfew? I'm not entirely sure.

Jadelynn the Panda is already at her nursing shift. For now, her husband, August the Polar Bear, is taking over the shelter and watching us until she comes back. I thought that this would be a good time to talk to him about how I truly feel, even though I've only been here for one day and one night.

My breakfast is done, I cleaned up my own mess and I washed my own dishes. I put the dishes into their respective spots and I make my way to where August is. He's in his office; the door is opened and he's sitting behind his desk, doing some paperwork.

I knock on the opened door, getting his attention, "August, can I speak to you?"

August picks his head up to see me. "Of course, Amy Rose. Come in, and take a seat."

I did albeit very timidly. I sat in one of his chairs, facing towards him. August continues to make eye contact with me, "What is it that you need to tell me?"

I begin, very anxiously, "Well, it's very complicated." I pause to take a deep breath, "I don't know how to put this, but—I'm already starting to feel like this isn't going to work out for me."

"And what makes you think that?" August seems concerned.

I continue, "To be honest, I'm not getting along with anyone here in this shelter. I think it was a mistake to be here. I mean, last night when I first saw Jack, he looked at me as if he was about to hurt me. And it's not just him; I feel as if I'm not getting along with Gavin, Evan, Satellite and/or Cloudy. I—what I'm saying here is—I feel like I don't belong here at all."

August heard everything I said to him. "Amy, I understand how you're feeling on your first days here in this household. Sometimes when newcomers move in, they get a sense of—"

I interrupted him, though very calmly, "No, actually it's not that."

He finishes, "I was going to say 'social anxiety.'"

"Oh," I should've let him finish his statement. What he just said was true about me.

"Is that what this is all about? Social anxiety?" August asks.

I became silent for a moment. I thought about it and without trying to make up a white lie, I tell him with integrity, "Yes. Because of it, I force myself into isolation because I worry that the rest of the kids would reject me and somewhere within me, I feel as if they won't get along with me or vice versa. And there's more to that."

"I'm listening."

"Not only it's this social-thing, I'm really afraid. Terrified, I should say."

"Terrified of what?"

"Of Jack." I can feel my heart pounding when I mentioned this.

August answers, "Amy, about him. We know that Jackson the Hedgehog is the most delinquent resident we have in this homeless youth shelter."

"Then why did you allow him to stay here?"

Feeling remorse and sympathetic, "Because just like you and the rest of the youths, Jack has undergone a lot of difficulties as well. Not only did he ran away and became homeless, his parents wanted nothing to do with him because of his deviant acts. So, they disowned him. He didn't talk much about anything else, though, and due to privacy rights for him and everyone else, including you, it's best if we not explain much about everyone's personal lives. We tried everything to get him under control; however, he just remained persistent with his disobedience and delinquency."

I heard the brief and vague facts about Jack. Somewhere part of me is telling me that Jack is illegally performing fraudulent to stay here and don't have to deal with whatever he's against with. These thoughts are sending me more fear. I hate to have to deal with delinquent youths and others who are willing to rebel and break the rules.

August continues, "Amy, I know what you're thinking about since what happened last night." He brings himself closer towards me over his desk and sets his hand onto my shoulder for comfort. "This is very crucial: if any one, especially Jack, is doing any harm whatsoever to you, then you have to make immediate actions. You have to report it either to me or Jade about what that youth has harmfully done to you. Do you understand?"

I'm still silent when he spoke. After a moment, I broke my own silence, "Yeah. I heard you."

August smiles. He pulls himself back to his seat. "Good. Is that all you need to speak to me about?"

I nod my head as an answer. Finally, when we're done with the meeting, I left his office.

For the rest of the day, the daily activities are all typically the same. Although, I wouldn't say the same; there are some things that I've perceived that are entirely different from yesterday.

When I went to the bathroom to wash my hands after using the toilet, I heard one of the two girls crying behind the closed shower curtain in one of the stalls and her cries were being muffled by the sounds of running water. I first noticed this when I looked at the mirror above the sink I was using. Through the reflection, I saw red-tinted water and the girl's—my guess was Cloudy Mist—lower body sitting on her bottom on the shower's floor. I was planning to check up on her and see if she's okay, but I didn't bothered.

When I went to the kitchen to grab a drink from the fridge, I see Satellite Nova kneeling against the garbage can. Not wanting to get into her business, I lean against the wall aside the kitchen's doorway to conceal myself and I eavesdrop. From where I was standing, I can hear loud retching sounds from her. I thought she may be sick or something. I didn't go near her nor did I ask her if she's okay. I knew right away if I ask her, she would urge me to leave her alone.

Nothing much happened to Jack the Jerk, Evan Skye the Hipster or Gavin Snow the Mute. So far, from what I've perceived Cloudy Mist the Goth and Satellite Nova the Bright, I assumed that something may be wrong with them. I'm not sure. I still don't want to be near them. I still don't want to talk to them.

Again, I still have this feeling that staying here could be the biggest mistake ever.

As the day turn into night and I spent my time doing my own activities separate from the rest, I was about to go to bed. My bedtime has interfered with me when I hear incoherent voices from the rest of the youths. They were whispering—or maybe only four out of five of them were whispering—about something they were planning to do. I see them exiting the bedroom and their voices fade away as they head somewhere else in the shelter.

This is not my intention, though I feel inquisitive about what they're doing. I decided to follow them. I get off my bed and I pull on my hoodie that was sitting at the end of my bunk. I left the room in my zipped up hoodie and pajama pants. I follow the sounds of their voices and the trail leads to the staircase on the upper floor.

It turns out that they entered the doorway that leads to the roof of the homeless youth shelter. I open the door and I step out. The lights on the roof are turned on and on the roof, all five of the teens are sitting there, with drinks in their hands. I get myself closer towards them. Their chatting ceases by the time I'm about one inch apart from the group. Their eyes are focused on me. They look pretty solemn underneath the night sky and the roof's lights.

"What are you doing here?" Jack coldly asks me.

I didn't answer. Then, I noticed that underneath the lights, there are cans (soda or beer?) I knew right away that this isn't good. Without saying anything, I turn back around, so I can leave the roof and return to my bunk.

"Hey, wait!" I hear one of them calling out to me. I turn around again and it was Evan.

"Evan, what are you doing?" Satellite exclaims at him, "She may snitch on us for doing this."

"Yeah, how do we know we should trust her?" Cloudy says, taking a sip of her drink.

"Come on, you guys," Evan says with confidence, "Give her a chance. She's new here anyway and remember what Jade said before. We should make her feel welcome." Apparently, Evan seems to be the only one who truly accepts me.

Jack lets out a sigh, "Fine, she can join."

Evan then gestures me to come sit with them. I reluctantly accept, though still acquiesce. I sit cross-legged on the roof's ground in between Evan and Cloudy, the latter is giving me a dark and dirty look. I try to ignore her. Gavin offered me a can, but I denied it.

"What are you guys drinking anyway?" I ask them.

"It's something that Jack snuck in, despite that August and Jade forbids them." Satellite explains. She pulls the tab of her can as it hisses before she takes a sip.

"This is supposed to be our secret," Cloudy darkly warns me, "So you better not tell."

My heart is racing again. I changed the subject. "Why are you guys doing here anyway?"

After taking a sip of his drink, Jack tells me. "We secretly come here every once a month to gaze at the full moon and stars."

"Really?" I suddenly became astounded. I look up at the night sky. The full moon is perceivable and so are the stars. This is a pretty good spot to look at the night sky. I quietly say to myself, "Wow."

For the next several minutes, all six of us are pretty quiet. We did nothing but to look up at the sky. This is inexplicably becoming really serene. Later on, something is brought up:

Jack begins, "Okay, guys, I have a game to play." We all glance at him in the semi-dark. "This game involves telling the truth."

Cloudy asks him, "Where are you getting at this, asshole?"

Jack answers, "Think of this game as Truth or Dare, except we can only do the truth and no dares. And the truth has to be the same subject I asked. Get that?"

Everyone seems to approve. I'm the only one who acquiesced.

Satellite asks, "What's the subject?"

Jack answers, "The subject is… what is the reason why we became homeless? And remember, you have to tell the truth. No lies." There is a pause in between all of us. He breaks the silence, "So… who would like to go first? Don't be afraid."

We glance at one another in an awkward way.

Evan raises his hand, "I would like to go first." He clears his throat, "My name is Evan Skye. The reason why I'm homeless is because," he pauses, as if he's taking a deep breath, "I'm gay. My parents found out themselves that I'm gay and I didn't even come out of the closet yet. Because of my sexual orientation and their homophobia, they kicked me out of the house. And with no friends to have or anywhere else to stay, I started living in the streets." We can hear his sniff emotionally.

"Aww," I hear Satellite yearning in sympathy. She went to rub his upper back for warming comfort. Evan thanks her for her sympathy.

Jack says, "That's just sad—and wrong." He's right. No parents should treat their kids like that just because of being gay. He asks, "Who's next?"

Satellite raises her hand, "My name is Satellite Nova. The reason why I'm homeless is because—I ran away from my abusive foster parents. I don't know who my real parents are, but I had to leave my foster family because I can't stand their physical and emotional abuse on me. I lived on the streets, I was performing prostitution for money, and—"she sniffs with a weep, "I once got pregnant, but I couldn't take care of the baby, so I—I performed an abortion on myself with a metal coat hanger. And also—I have bulimia nervosa."

My eyes turn watery from her story.

Cloudy Mist is next. "My name is Cloudy Mist. The reason why I'm homeless is because I got kicked out of my own home by my neglectful mother. That bitch mother of mines is a fucking drug addict and all she cared about is herself," I know where this is going; this is something I can relate to myself. I listen more to Cloudy's story, "While I was running away, I was looking for my estranged father in hope that he would allow to let me stay at his place. But—it turns out that that asshole wanted nothing to do with me, so he abandoned me. While I was living in the streets, I was trying to kill myself by slitting my wrists." She became emotional. She's hiccups her sobs. "And now, here I am; staying at this place as I continue to cut my wrists out of pain and misery."

I was wondering what she was doing in that shower earlier today. I feel really sorry for her.

Everyone glances at Gavin. Jack says to him, "It's your turn now, buddy—oh, yeah that's right, you can't speak." Evan jabs Jack in the upper arm for being rude.

Gavin takes a deep breath and for the first time, he says, "Actually—this is the right time for me to speak up after my long time of silence." Everyone seems surprised that he finally spoke. He begins his own story, "My name is Gavin Snow. The reason why I'm homeless is because," he pauses, "my abusive alcoholic father murdered my mom out of drunkenness. He beat her to death one night and when the police came to our house, they took him away and that was the last time I ever saw him. With my dad arrested and my mom dead," he sniffs, "I was all alone and deeply traumatized by what I witnessed. I immediately ran away from home and slept on the streets inside a cardboard box in the alley. And in case you're wondering why I was mute is because of the trauma I went through."

That makes so much sense now, about why Gavin chose to be mute. While Evan, Satellite and Cloudy are comforting Gavin and to each other, I mentally summarized all of their stories. It's—it's just so sad to hear what they all went through. I now know that I'm not alone; everybody has difficult lives to go through.

As I watch the four of them comforting each other, Jack stops their moment, "Okay, that's enough." They broke off as they gaze at him, "Last but not least," he fixes his eyes towards me, "our newcomer."

All of their eyes are gazing at me. I return the eye contact with nervousness. Jack says to me, "Go on, tell us why you're here."

I became silent for a moment. Then, after taking a deep breath and using all the audacity I have, I admit, "My name is Amy Rose. The reason why I'm homeless is because," I emotionally hesitated, "it's because of my abusive stepmom and neglectful father. My mother committed suicide because of my father being unfaithful. And for years," another hesitation, "I became the victim of child abuse and even parental abuse. During my runaway and sleeping on the streets, I was raped by three guys and I went on hiding when I found out I was a missing child. I didn't want to be taken back to my abusive stepmother and father or sleep on the streets again, so I…" I sniff with a teardrop running in one of my eyes, "I attempted to commit suicide by getting myself run over by an oncoming truck. I survived but during my coma, I found out I was pregnant by one of the rapists who assaulted me, which the baby later died in a miscarriage. My dad and stepmother decided to disown me after finding out I was pregnant with a dead baby, so… here I am." My voice broke at the end of my story. I instantly cry with the palms of my hands covering my face.

I didn't expect them to hear my own story. But then…

I hear both Satellite and Cloudy yearning in sympathy. The next thing I knew, they, along with Evan and Gavin, crawl closer towards me—and I feel all of them giving me a group hug, with me in the center.

"It's okay," Satellite whispers to me, "We're here for you now."

"You really don't deserve all of this," Evan says.

I pick my head up. I can't really see their faces underneath the semi-dark, though I can see that they do feel sorry for me and that they wanted to be there for me. Even though I'm still crying, I let out a smile. The mental pain and melancholia hurts so much, but it feels so good to reveal it all.

"Okay, okay," Jack breaks the moment again, "That's enough."

We all break off the group hug. We fix our eyes towards Jack, who is strangely smiling warmly, and we all became solemn towards him. As we reveal our stories, Jack is the only one who barely showed any emotions.

Jack says, "We get it. We all have difficult shit to go through." He sounded so nonchalant. We glare at him for his insensitivity.

Cloudy coldly says to him, "What about you? Did you have any difficult shit of your own?"

Evan informs him with the same amount of coldness, "It was your idea that you came up with this and you did say that all of us must admit our own reasons why we're homeless."

Satellite adds, "Yeah, so what's your side of the story?"

We stare at him. Jack's smile fades to solemn. Then, he sighs, "I admit," we listen, "I'm homeless because I can't stand my parents. I hated how they were all crazily strict with me, so I decided to disown them. I ran away from home because I want to leave my parents. That is all."

I heard his side of the story. But—that doesn't make any sense. August told me earlier today that Jack was disowned by his parents because of his rebellion against them. He said that he disowned them because they're strict and he wanted to leave them, so he could do anything he wants. I can't even tell which side of Jack's story is true.

The rest of the group and I continue to stare at him with silence. All of us can tell that Jack is making up his own story. Jack breaks the silence and then changes the subject, "Look, game's over. The night is still young. Let's just enjoy the moon and star gazing without August and Jade."

And so we did. During this moment with just the six of us, we stay on the roof for about an hour or so before we go back to bed (and before August and Jade finds out).

As I stare at the gleaming stars, something is telling me—that maybe this will turn out to be okay. Maybe I will get along with them after all.

But for Jack—I still don't know if I can. I'm still concerned with his deviant acts… and I'm really inquisitive about what he's really hiding from us.


	16. Bleeding

**A/N: I would appreciate it if you guys DO NOT mention about me losing my position as a secretary of a school club. DO NOT SAY IT OR ELSE!**

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Bleeding

Let's recap: first, I thought I wouldn't get along with any of the kids in the shelter. But then, we suddenly drew really close—it's a sort of for Jack the Hedgehog—when we first admitted our difficult and heartbreaking, tear-jerking stories of why we're homeless. Ever since then, our bonding as abused victims escaping from our old lives has grown stronger.

It's been months—two or three months more specifically—since I first moved into the shelter and I never felt this safe before. Without Dad and Lauren, everything has gone more serene and pacified. I wouldn't have to worry about their neglect and abuse anymore.

As for the rest of the homeless youth gang, both Satellite Nova and Cloudy Mist are getting along really fine. The first time I walked in, I noticed that their behavior towards one another was estranged and bitter and now with me around, Satellite and Cloudy became cookies and milk. Gavin Snow is still a mute after speaking up for the very first time about his trauma right into his own home. He communicates with a small portable dry erase board and a marker; whenever he wants to say something, he would just write it down and show it to us which we don't mind at all. If Gavin wants to remain a mute, then it's his choice. Evan Skye has felt completely relief when he came out of the closet and we all accepted him for being gay. I couldn't help but to notice how really clingy and close both Evan and Gavin are becoming with each other. Maybe it's a sign for them, but who knows?

Satellite, Cloudy, Evan and Gavin have all bonded really well since I moved in. However—I still feel suspicious about Jack. He still hasn't admitted his own story of why he's homeless. I know it's really none of my business though I've been really inquisitive about him. Did he really left his strict parents or did his parents disown him for his delinquency? No one knows.

Due to my curiosity on Jack, I secretly came up with a plan to talk to him so that the more we have friendly conversations, the more he could trust me. If he can finally trust me, then he may reveal his true story. Although, something has changed throughout these past days. My plan to get Jack to rely on me—has abruptly become more than just a plan. I was starting to feel something different towards Jack. I'm not sure what though. Now, every time I get near him, I feel something—as if it's some kind a deep connection between us two.

Let's not get that in the way yet.

Today, the guys and I just set up a spot near the supermarket as some kind of support that they normally do before I moved into the shelter. They said they did this every Sunday because that's when everyone is really generous and sympathetic after their weekly services. It's sort of like begging except they do it all together as a way to support homeless children and ask for donations. I'm not sure if it's really legal to do that, but I'm taking part of it anyway.

The gang finished up setting up a blanket on the sidewalk against the market's outside wall so we can sit on it. Gavin has the hand-written sign up made of cardboard that says "Homeless Runaway Youths. Help us survive, please. Thanks!" We all sit together on the blanket with a bucket filled with money right in front of us. Satellite, Cloudy and Evan did all the begging.

I can hear Satellite playfully calling out, "Help us please! We're homeless runaway youths! Please help us by your donations! It would mean a lot to us!" Typical optimistic Satellite; she can be happily annoying, but we still love her. I couldn't help but to smile.

As bystanders generously handed us dollar-bill donations by putting them into our bucket, Satellite, Evan and Cloudy did all the begging and Gavin holds up the cardboard sign. Meanwhile, I realized that Jack is the only one keeping himself apart from the others. He's just standing a few yards away from our spot, leaning against the outside corner of the supermarket with his arms and legs crossed and just staring at nothing but the air. It's concerning me.

I told the others that I wanted to talk to Jack. They allowed me. I get up from the blanket and then I stroll closer to Jack. I stood behind him and then tap on his shoulder. He only turns his head and back around, giving me a cold glare for no reason.

"What is it?" He asks me.

"I just wanted to check up on you." I answer back. He turns back around, facing at the blank space again.

"Go away, Rose." He says quietly.

Something strange I noticed in the tone of his voice. He sounded—pretty pessimistic. Not his usual delinquent pessimistic way though. I meant a sad kind of pessimistic. This is out of his usual tough and badass character. I became more concerned for him than ever.

"Do you want to talk?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Just leave me alone. I just want to be alone, that's all. Just—go do your begging shit thing."

I don't care what he says. I want to stay and at least cheer the light tan hedgehog. I completely forgot about the harmonic I have inside one of my jeans pocket. I take it out (and I can't believe I still have it on me. Otherwise I'd be upset). I put the tiny instrument to my mouth and I blow a little tune right behind his back.

I see Jack perking his ears when he listens. He then fully turns around to face me. As I resume playing, I can see him trying to smirk—only a tiny bit.

"What are you doing?" Jack asks me, giving a little subtle chuckle. I stop playing so I can reply.

"It's just that," I begin, "before she passed away, my mom gave me his harmonica and whenever I'm feeling down, I would play it to myself to keep me calm." I play another quick tune before putting it back into my pocket.

Then I tell him the story of how I used my harmonica to earn money for a living.

"Did you really?" Jack is starting to feel better, I can tell.

"Yeah," I remark, sharing the same amount of rationality as him. "It's was accidental though. I was just sitting right outside of the market, just simply playing the harmonica to calm myself down. Everyone thought I was begging even though I wasn't at first." I chuckle a little.

"At least you made some money," Jack comments, then jokes, "With that amount, you could've rent an apartment without having to sleep on the streets.

"That's unlikely," I playfully roll my eyes, "No apartment rent costs twenty dollars. Plus, I'm not even legal yet."

We both chuckle again. Jack and I stare at one another for several moments. I still have this strange feeling that the connection between us is getting stronger the more we get close. We're smiling at each other. I feel my face flushing a bit—okay, more than a bit. I can't believe I would be attracted to someone who would rebel against anyone's wishes. I would never fall for someone like him, but—

"Amy?"

Suddenly, our moment together came to an end when someone else says my name. The familiarity of his voice is sending me déjà vu although I haven't heard from him ever since I was hospitalized. I reluctantly face away from Jack to see who was calling me.

Of course, it was Sonic. It's just only him, not Shadow, Silver, Manic and/or Scourge.

"Sonic," I inaudibly say his name.

He strolls closer to me, feeling surprised. Jack watches him, already seemingly unhappy despite the two haven't even known each other yet. Sonic stands an inch apart from me.

"Wow, Amy. You look—recovered. And different." Sonic tells me. I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not.

"Thanks," I answer, not even sure if I said it in a good way or in a bad way. Although he's right; I have been looking different after a few months. My quills are growing longer up to my shoulders and the wounds on my face are healing.

Changing the subject, I ask him where his friends and brother are.

Sonic remarks, "They just went into the market. I told them to get what's according to our grocery list and then I said I wanted to wait outside to see you."

I couldn't help but to notice something different about Sonic as well. I perceive the dark circles around his eyes. He looks like he hasn't slept for days—or maybe months. And his eyes—his eyes looks a bit distressed to me. Now, I'm concerned for him as much as I am with Jack.

Jack clears his throat, loud enough for the both of us to hear. Apparently, the moment is getting awkward. He crosses his arms when Sonic makes eye contact with him.

"Oh," I begin, feeling uncomfortable with the awkwardness. I introduced the two, "Sonic, this is Jack. From the homeless shelter I'm now staying into. And Jack, this is Sonic—my ex-boyfriend."

Sonic and Jack glare at each other, seemingly in contempt. They didn't shake hands or anything. Just a cold-sounding "hey."

"You've been taking care of her over there?" Sonic asks.

"Yeah, I have," Jack answers with more antagonism with him, "Unlike you, I never talk some nasty shit with four roommates behind her back and then made her leave."

Sonic became offended, "That was accidental. I didn't know she was there."

"Sure you do," Jack sarcastically replies.

I can already see this is a bad idea. Before he could insult him more, I got Jack to stop. I turn to Sonic to say something to him. However, something else caught my attention in the corner of my eye.

As I gaze at Sonic's upper arm, I notice a fainting scar. It's goes down vertically and it looks deep. My eyes widen at the sight.

"Sonic," I say to him. I point the scar on his arm, "What happened?"

Sonic glances down at his upper arm where the scar is. Then he faces back to me, "Oh, it was from your dad. All five of us ran into him and—shit just got ugly between me and him." He shrugs.

I remember now. I never knew my dad Aaron would go that far into hurting him just for that false accusation for raping and impregnating me. Aaron wasn't joking at all. I stare at the scar for a few more seconds. I tell Sonic, "It looked really serious."

Sonic says, "It was. There was blood running and Shadow, Silver, Manic and Scourge were all able to seek immediate help before it was too late. I nearly fainted at the sight of it but," he sighs, "I made it through."

Jack tells Sonic with more contempt, "He should've sliced you in the neck instead of your arm."

Sonic, abruptly feeling antagonistic against him, yells, "Who asked you?!"

Jack was about to go after Sonic to tackle him right in the street. Sonic looks like he's about to retaliate. Before he even touches him, I instantly stop Jack by holding his arm, "Jack, no!" Then I have the ability to stop Sonic from attacking him as well, "Sonic, please don't do it."

With me in the middle now and keeping them apart, Sonic and Jack continue to glare at one another in more abhorrence. They just met and they already hate each other. The last thing I wanted was for them to fight over me. I tell them at once, "Both of you, please! I don't want any more of this battle. I've been through enough."

Sonic and Jack glare eye to eye once more until they are able to calm themselves down.

"Amy! Jack!" I hear Cloudy calling out. Jack and I turn to her. We can see her along with Satellite, Evan and Gavin coming towards us. They stood next to us. Cloudy asks, feeling worried for us, "Are you two okay?"

Jack answers, "Everything's fucking fine," he's still holding down his anger. I try to calm him down by holding onto his arm.

I face to the others, "I'm sorry. My ex Sonic just appeared and I tried to get him and Jack to," I have a hard time explaining this, "but things are not going well as I planned." I'm starting to regret this now.

"Sonic, bro!" I hear Manic calling out to Sonic. Sonic and I turn to him; there they are standing a few feet away from us as they got out of the entrance. Manic, Shadow, Silver and Scourge are each holding one plastic bag full of groceries. They all walk towards us.

"Sonic," Silver informs him, "We got everything we need. We should be going."

The four notices me, apparently stunned that I'm still okay. Scourge comments, "Whoa, you look—"

I cut him off, feeling too stressed out (and I'm not even in the mood for any of Scourge's flirts), "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I've changed these past few months after my hospitalization."

I hear Evan saying, "Guys, I think we should be going. We should head back to the shelter before something else happens."

Satellite agrees, "He's right. Jade and August would be worried." She turns to the two of us, "Jack. Amy."

Instantly, Jack remarks, "We're going! C'mon, Rose."

Just when I was about to follow him, I feel someone else grasping my arm, stopping me.

"Amy, no." I turn around to see Sonic stopping me from leaving. He seems serious.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" I ask him, as I try to pull myself away from him, "I have to go."

Sonic refuses to let go of me. He tells me, "Amy! I don't want you staying with them, especially—that guy!" He's referring to Jack.

Jack has me in his grasp now. He shouts at Sonic, "Let her go! She doesn't need you anymore! She has us now!"

Sonic retaliates, "She doesn't deserve to live in a homeless shelter! She deserves to stay in a proper home!"

Sonic and Jack resume fighting over me. What's more embarrassing is that we're in front of his four housemates and the shelter youth kids. They're all watching us. I couldn't take this anymore. Out of anger, I pull myself from both of them. "Sonic! Jack! Please stop!" I pause as they both stare, "Like I said, I don't want any more of this shit happening to me again!"

Sonic says, "Amy, if you could just—"

I push him away, "I'm sorry, Sonic. I made my choice. I—"

Out of nowhere, I feel my heart stopping when someone grabs me by the shoulder and then forcibly turns me around. I nearly scream when this happens. As I was forced to face away from Sonic and Jack, my heart races in inexplicable fear.

There she is again—my stepmom. She looks even worse than before. She has dark circles, her face is entirely wrinkled, and her breath smells like alcohol. I knew she'd be drinking herself to death. And she even looks severely intoxicated.

"Lauren," I say her name.

Lauren snarls at me, keeping her grip on my shoulder painfully tight, causing me to wince. "You… Amy Rose! This is all your fault!"

I stammer in terror. I have no idea what she's talking about. Lauren resumes, "Because of you, your asshole father divorced me and left me all alone with nothing! And now here I have found you; first you fucked with more random guys, then you got pregnant with a dead baby, and now—you're begging for more money and fucking with more guys?! You should be ashamed of yourself, you homeless little slut!"

I have no idea what she's saying. Lauren is not making any sense at all. Maybe it's just the alcohol she's drinking. "Lauren, please…"

Lauren cuts me off, hurting my shoulder even more, "And just for that, you're going to fucking pay!"

Suddenly… I feel something stabbing into the side of my abdomen. I scream out in pain as some kind of metal blade enters me and then pulls out.

I hear everyone frantically clamoring over me as they saw the whole thing and then battling against Lauren. I get on the ground, too weak to move with my hand covering the wound on my abdomen. I smell something like copper and it's oozing out of me. I feel the sticky liquid heat.

"Oh my God! She's bleeding!" Cloudy frantically shouts out.

"She got stabbed!" Evan screams.

"AMY!" Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Manic, Scourge and Jack all scream out as they surround me, all at once trying to help me.

I can feel myself fainting. When I try to look up with my vision coming to a blur, I can see that Lauren has a box cutter in her hand. Its blade is covered with blood. My blood. She stabbed me.

Lauren shouts at me, "This is what you get for being born and then ruining me!" She takes the box cutter up again, preparing herself to attack me again.

Before she can bring her weapon down again, I sense everyone tackling her, trying to stop her from hurting me. It's hard for me to witness what's happening now. Everything is coming to a blur. I already feel as if I'm about to bleed to death right on the ground.

Even though I'm losing conscious, I can hear police sirens, flashing red and blue lights, and Lauren screaming more. I hear the police force attacking Lauren right on the ground. I hear handcuffs clicking. Lauren is screaming,

"Get the fuck away from me! It's not my fucking fault my stepdaughter ruined my life!" She added fake sympathetic sobs, trying to get away with it. "She deserves to die!"

This is sending me memories of when I was in the police station. It's haunting me. Maybe it was a message they're sending me about Lauren's fate.

"We have to get her to Jade and August!" Satellite urges the shelter youth kids. "We have to go now before Amy bleeds to death!"

The very last thing I hear is Jack fighting with Sonic and his friends and brother; they were having some kind of heated argument over me. The sounds of their fight are fading away into distance.

Finally as I was still holding my bleeding stab wound… I fainted into the arms of my new friends.


	17. Speaking

Speaking

I woke up after passing out from all that bleeding. When I opened my eyes, everything was a little blurry. It took my vision only about a few seconds to clear up. To be honest, I thought I was dead. I thought Lauren already killed me. Strangely, I feel as if I'm still alive. How is it possible for me to survive from being stabbed in the stomach with a box cutter?

As soon as my vision is all clear, I see the entire homeless shelter youth gang right in front of me, including Jade and August. The first thing I saw from them is their smiles.

"She's made it, guys," Satellite whispers to everyone.

I gaze around. I'm back in the shelter and I'm lying down on the couch in the main room. The entire group is sitting beside me.

Very carefully, I sit up. I wince when I feel the stinging pain right on the spot where I was stabbed at. Jade and August warns me to be careful. When I placed my hand on top of the wound on the side of my stomach, I noticed a patch taped on it. I stare at it.

"What did you guys do?" I ask them.

"As a nurse, I cannot treat the wound myself," Jade informs me, "So we called professionals as soon as possible. You might want to call yourself miraculous because the wound was not deep enough to hit any of your vital abdominal organs. However, to stop the bleeding and to prevent serious infections, they had to cauterize, add antiseptic and then sutures."

August adds, "They said you still have a chance of survival." He and Jade smile at me.

I'm glad enough to see everyone happy at the fact that I survived. I'm also glad at myself for staying alive. Although, something else is interfering with me inside my head. I'm thinking about Lauren.

I ask them, "What happened to Lauren? My stepmother. She was the one who nearly killed me."

Cloudy answers, "She got arrested. She's in jail now."

Evan adds, "The police took her into custody. Looks like you're not going to see her again."

I am entirely relieved to hear that.

Cloudy then adds, stroking through my hair in comfort, "We're really sorry about what your stepmom did to you. We never knew she would be that insane."

I shook my head in disbelief, "Neither did I. I just can't believe why my dad would want to marry her in the first place."

Jade informs me, "Speaking of your father, while all of you kids were outside, he appeared at the shelter."

I'm surprised. I haven't seen him for months. "What did he say?"

Jade answers, "Nothing. He just showed up in the lobby to drop off more of your stuff from your old home."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Your personal belongings are somewhere in the storage. They're still there, perfectly untouched." Jade finishes.

I tried to get up from the couch to see for myself. The pain on my wound appears again. I wince a little. Again, everyone tells me to take it easy and it's best if I should stay here and rest until the pain subsides. Jack even lays his hand on my shoulder. I look at him. He's giving me a warming smile, something that I've never seen before from him. I smile back.

Satellite says, "By the way, Jack was thinking about you while you were out cold."

I look at him some more. After Satellite's little fact, Jack was blushing and trying to hide his reaction. I find that cute, even for a rebel in a black jacket. Somehow, I still want to learn more from him. I wanted to know more about why he was here in the first place and what really made him do all these things that could get him arrested. I also wanted to know why he was defending me from Sonic and Lauren and why he already hated Sonic.

I told everyone else, "Is it okay if Jack and I speak to each other—alone?"

Jade and August both accept it. They and the others agree to leave the main room and go off to their business. This left just me and Jack, just how I want it.

By the time everyone dispersed, Jack faces to me. He takes a seat next to me on the couch, "What is it that you want to speak to me?"

Gathering up my audacity, I begin, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you fight with my ex, Sonic? And why were you thinking of me while I was being treated for my wound?"

Jack sighs, "It's complicated."

I touch the back of his hand lying on the couch cushion, "You don't have to tell me if you're uncomfortable with it. I respect that."

"No," Jack answers, "I'll tell you." He begins, "For the second part, I was just worried for you because that stab wound looked so serious. Even though Jade said it wasn't that deep, it was still bleeding pretty badly and I was afraid that you might instantly bleed to death. At the same time, I was really outraged for what your stepmom did to you. I just couldn't believe a parent—or stepparent in your case—would do that to you. It's really fucked up.

"And for the first part—It's hard for me to explain. All I can say is—I was jealous."

I became perplex, "How?"

Jack resumes, "When you mentioned that he was your ex, I immediately grew envy of him because—I don't know, I just do." He sighs again as he tilts his head down to the floor.

I scoot a little closer to him, careful enough not to hurt the injury on my stomach.

"Jack…" I begin as he looks back at me, "I was going to ask you if you," I pause, feeling embarrassed. "If you like me or something." Mentally, I brace myself, anticipating for unwanted denial.

Jack is speechless for a few moments. He closes his eyes for a second to take a deep breath before opening them.

"Riley." He says.

"Hm?" I question him.

Jack closely stares at me with a seemingly sad facial expression. Finally, he begins his whole story.

"My real name is Riley. It's not Jack at all." I'm more perplexed; I was about to ask him, but I don't want to interrupt him. I allow him to continue. "I changed my name to 'Jack' after my older brother. Way before I moved here, it was just me and the real Jack ever since our father died of a drug overdose and our mother killed herself by alcohol poisoning. Before their deaths, both of our parents were the worst.

"He was the most badass out of the two of us but while we only had each other in our old low income, cheap-ass apartment, he took pretty good care of me. Despite his drug dealing and robbery and a whole other shit he does—Jack was still my brother and I loved him.

"Many months ago," he pauses, trying to hold down his sadness, "I found him and his friends dead in the living room of our apartment. They were shot dead." He pauses again for another moment. I can tell that he's sobbing.

I decided to comfort him by putting my arm around his shoulder. He accepts it. Taking a deep breath, he resumes, "That's why I changed my name from 'Riley' to 'Jack.' I thought calling myself as my older brother would help me remember him. Turns out shit is getting worse than before.

"Ever since Jack's death, I couldn't handle taking care of myself all alone in the apartment. I couldn't pay rent or feed myself. So I abandoned that place and went off living in the streets until I came by here.

"Because of my grief or whatever—and posing myself as Jack instead of Riley—I have been breaking a ton of laws. I steal, I take drugs mostly heroin and crack, and I even grabbed bottles of booze from stores without paying. I got arrested once, but I still do these kind of shit because I couldn't stop thinking about him.

"And—I'm really sorry, Rose."

"For what?"

"For being a complete douche bag to you when you first came in. And for lying about my parents disowning me instead of telling my real homeless story. I just—"

I finish for him, "You just don't want to think about it all. You're hiding your sadness because you want to keep your tough-ass reputation."

"Exactly. And again, I'm sorry for thinking you were the one who snitched me out for breaking in the shelter after curfew hours." I accept his apology. He continues to make eye contact with me. "But you have to promise me something. Promise me you won't tell everyone in here that my real name is Riley and why I changed my name to my brother's. His name really means a lot to me and I don't want to change it back. Please, Rose. Please promise me." He takes my hands into his.

I thought about it. Normally, I can't keep these kinds of things to myself but the way he's begging me, there's really no way for me to deny it.

I say, "I promise." He smiles. I continue, "But let me be honest with you." I smile at him, "I like Riley better than Jack. It's more—you."

"Still, I kinda like Jack and Rose better—if you get the joke," he chuckles.

I chuckle back, "I do get it." Jack and Rose from the _Titanic_ movie. "Does that mean—"

He finishes me, "—if I like you back? I guess I can say that. You were the only here who understands me the most. That's why I choose you."

Now I finally got what I need to know from Jack—I mean, Riley. I actually like the name Riley better than Jack, that's the truth. But if he wants to change it to Jack, whether if it's named after his late-brother or that he thinks Riley sounded like a girl's name despite it's really unisex, then it's his choice.

"I like you too—Riley." I tell him. He chuckles again.

For the rest of our alone time just the two of us, I begin to have my first conversation with Jack as his real Riley. I tell him about the time when I was at the police station, I saw a given sign that I believed it would be the fate of Lauren. I remember seeing some drunk woman getting arrested and the way she screamed at the police taking her hostage, it reminded me exactly like Lauren. I was right. Now that Lauren is arrested—just like her—I won't have to worry about her beating me up every day anymore.

Riley claimed that maybe it was a message from the sky. Maybe my deceased mother who was somewhere up there sent me that message to tell me what was going to happen to Lauren. I didn't believe it at first, but now I do.

With this new bonding between me and Riley—I'm sure things couldn't get any better.

At least that's what I think.


	18. Breaking

**A/N: RECAP: Jack's real name is Riley so starting at this chapter, Amy will be referring him as "Riley" instead of "Jack."**

 **Warning:** **There's a Riley x Amy lemon scene at the end, though I managed to not make it graphic despite being an M-rated story.  
**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Breaking

It's been a couple of weeks ever since Riley and I got along with each other and he privately revealed his true self to me. We have been keeping his secret from everyone else in the shelter under his request. The others, especially Jade and August, still never knew about Jack's real name.

Throughout these couple of weeks together, our bonding grew stronger than ever. Without letting anyone else know about us, Riley and I went on dates, from strolling through parks to roaming through the town. We may seem like a homeless runaway youth couple, but at least we still have each other.

Just a little note, we're not that serious—yet.

During our previous dates though, Riley has been a bad influence just for the adrenaline rush and survival.

He taught me to shoplift from small markets and convenience stores.

He taught me to pickpocket bystanders.

He even snuck me into certain clubs that I have to be twenty-one or over.

Sure all of these actions that Riley got me into are illegal. Strangely—I like it.

I never knew that the adrenaline rush of stealing and sneaking into bars and clubs without any legal IDs can be so rewarding for me. I really enjoy it. It also made me forget all the shit I went through before I became homeless; I completely forgot about Lauren, I forgot about Aaron, and I forgot about—Sonic.

What's even more enjoyable is that neither Riley nor I have gotten arrested. I guess he really knows how to get away from things he has done.

Suddenly, I now feel wanting more of bonding with Riley.

Without letting Jade, August, Evan, Satellite, Cloudy and Gavin know, we left the shelter somewhere in the early afternoon or late morning. Riley is wearing a black and red flannel shirt with a black T-shirt underneath, torn jeans, used work boots and his own black backpack. I'm wearing tank top that reveals my entire midriff, an unbuttoned denim jacket, short black denim shorts with tears at the hems and a pair of used sneakers (all of our clothes are from the good will regardless how old or new they look). Riley even complimented how sexy I look for a homeless teen. I thanked him.

Holding hands, Riley and I make our way to the town.

"So what are we going to do today?" I ask him.

"I actually have a plan later tonight," Riley answers, "but first, we need to grab something to eat and drink for now and later."

"But you know we don't have that much money on us."

Riley winks at me, signaling me. I get what he was saying. I smile at him.

I ask him again, "What plan do you have in mind?"

He chuckles, "You'll see. Let's just hope that everything is still there." Looks like Riley has a surprise for me. We continue strolling to town.

A few minutes later, we made it there. It's some kind of shopping location; there are small boutiques, coffee shops, bistros, cafes, you know it. Bystanders are walking around either in groups, duos or solos, and some are holding paper coffee cups in their hands, shopping bags or mindlessly looking at their smartphones.

"You hungry yet?" Riley asks me.

"A little," I honestly answer. "What are we going to do here? There are a lot of people in this neighborhood; what if they see us doing… you know?"

"We're just going to find a convenience store or something. Those always have the weakest security and shit." Riley informs me.

"You mean like a 7-Eleven?"

"If there is one."

Walking through the crowded streets, we search our way to find a small market to shoplift without any surveillance or witnesses. We get looks by several bystanders albeit we tend to ignore them. We're not sure why they stare at us (possibly because we look like a homeless couple). Whatever it is, Riley gets the tendency to mentally fuck them off, which amuses me.

After minutes of searching and roaming, Riley points out. "There."

I look to where he is pointing at. It is indeed a small 7-Eleven market.

"Thank God, we found one. Those stores always have the best shit," Riley says.

As we make our way to the store, we pass by a group of girls, talking to one another as they walk. I could've sworn they look familiar. As Riley continues to head to the store, I let go of him for a minute. At the same time, the girls stopped their soft incoherent conversation and I can feel them standing right behind me, staring at me. Riley steps through the entrance as the door's motion detector rings and I remain outside.

I turn around to see the girls—and I knew they looked familiar. They're my old friends: Cream, Blaze, Rouge, Tikal, Mina and even Rosy. They're the ones who rejected me earlier when I ask each one of them on the payphone if I can stay in their place.

As they are holding their own shopping bags, all six of my ex-friends gave me looks of surprise. Me? I reacted nothing. Part of me is telling me that I'm still mad at them for leaving me all alone in the beginning of my runaway. All I did is glare at them.

After my quick and disdainful reunion, I continue to walk through the market as I ignore my ex-best friend Cream and all of her other friends. The door's motion detector rings when I enter. I look around the 7-Eleven to find Riley standing by one of the shelves, pretending to browse through the inventory. I look at the cashiers behind the counter and they seem distracted as hell; they're just having their own conversation, not paying any attention to their customers. Some incompetence.

I quickly stroll to Riley, hoping that the cashiers didn't witness a thing as we do our own business. I stand beside him.

"What are we stealing?" I whisper to his ear.

"Whatever is small and concealing," Riley whispers back.

Using our secret shoplifting methods, we were able to grab a few small foods that would last us the whole day: cups of instant ramen, individual packs of Pop-Tarts, packs of mini-cakes, and four small bottles of iced tea. We first hid them into our pockets inside my jacket and his flannel shirt and then we move to the very back corner where it's hard for anyone to see us. Riley takes his backpack off his shoulder and then we quickly dump our stolen foods into it before quickly zipping it up shut.

"Okay, let's go," Riley whispers to me before he hurriedly puts his backpack back on. We run towards the exit.

Very quickly, and hoping that no one can see us, Riley and I together run to the nearest alley we could find and then temporarily hide. We stand in between the walls and hid ourselves within the darkness. Riley perks out of the alley to see if we are safe before swiftly bringing himself back in. I begin to giggle at what we just did. He laughs along as well.

Riley takes off his backpack, opens it and then took out two of our bottles of iced tea. He hands one to me and one to himself. I thank him and then we open the caps off.

"Here's to us," Riley raises his bottle to me as if giving a toast. "For being the best and most badass runaway youths in town." I smile at his joke. I clink my bottle towards his and we both take sips of our beverages.

After closing our iced tea bottles, Riley goes through his backpack again. Then, he takes out one pack of the Pop-Tarts before opening it. I take one and he takes the other. We both ate our own strawberry-filled treats, drank our iced tea again to wash them down and put everything back into his backpack.

Holding hands again, we make our way out of the alley and stroll to a different direction. As we walk hand to hand, Riley begins the conversation, "So who were those girls you were with before you walked in?"

"Oh," I answer, acting nonchalantly, "They're Cream, Blaze, Tikal, Rouge, Mina and Rosy. They were my old friends—and frenemy; Rosy was a frenemy to me. They betrayed me earlier on the day I started running away from home. We don't talk anymore. To be honest, I didn't even say a word to them because I was still pissed off at them for what they did to me. Instead of saying something, I just ignored them and pretended that I didn't know them."

"Well, you certainly made the right choice," Riley answers.

"Yeah. Honestly, I'm glad that I don't have them anymore. Now, I have you and all the others back in the shelter."

"You really don't need them at all. You're better off without them."

I agree with what he said. We continue on strolling through town, hoping to find something else to do.

In about half an hour, we came by another convenience store. We stand outside.

Riley tells me, "Hang on, I'll be right back." Then, he walks in. I decided to stand outside and wait for him until he comes back.

To pass the time, I gaze around the neighborhood, simply just standing outside of the store with my arms crossed. My mindless glance led me to perceive my ex-friends again, walking yards away and they seem to be coming closer to me. I have no idea why, but my instincts are telling me that they're following me or stalking me. I bet they saw me through the window shoplifting from the 7-Eleven. I'm already getting annoyed with that. Whatever Riley is getting, I just hope he hurries up before…

"Amy Rose… how could you?" I hear Cream saying. I reluctantly face towards them and I continue to glare at them in the same amount of disdain.

When I see the six, I perceive their facial expressions; by judging Cream's tone, her wondering what I just did back there and the way they're looking at me, it seems as if they did saw me stealing. Now they're concerned for me? First, they denied me in the beginning and now they're checking up on me to see if I am alright?

I sigh with complete annoyance and I uncrossed my arms to set them down. I was about to tell them that what I did is none of the business and that I have the right to do whatever I pleased. That doesn't sound like me at all, but my instincts are telling me so.

Just when I was about to tell them, I hear Riley calling out in a hurry.

"Rose! Let's go!" I see him hurriedly running out of the store. He grabs hold of my arm and he urges me to run with him. Without even glancing back at my old friends and choosing not to talk to them, I run along with him at the same amount of speed as him.

"Hey you! Come back here!" I hear the store's cashier yelling at Riley. We continue to run as fast as we can until we reach to our unknown destination. I can hear my ex-friends clamoring at what just impetuously happened.

"What did you—"I tried to ask him.

Riley answers, "No time to explain yet! Just keep running!" And so we did.

Miles later, we made it to an empty neighborhood. We sat down on the sidewalk leaning against the street wall and panting in exhaustion. Using all of our energy left, we took our time to make sure that there are no cops and no bystanders around. There aren't at this time. Consider us lucky.

Panting, I ask him again, "Riley, what did you just do at that store?"

Taking off his backpack and then unzipping it, Riley smiles at me despite the exhaustion, "I snagged something good."

"What is it?"

Instead of telling me, he shows it to me. Riley digs into the pack and he takes out something unbelievable. My eyes widen at his latest stolen object—a bottle of vodka.

"Did you just—"

"Hell yeah I did!" Riley grins malevolently.

"Riley! That's crazy!" I'm shocked as hell when Riley went too far into stealing alcohol from the store. "I don't even drink!"

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it. And I actually done this before, didn't I tell you?" He did, I guess I forgot.

"What—what were you even thinking?"

"It was part of the plan I was going to surprise you tonight. If you want, I can mix it into the iced tea for a better taste." He puts the stolen vodka back into his pack and then starts rummaging through our stolen goods.

"Are our food still in there?" I ask him.

"Of course, Rose. I didn't even take any of them out." Riley pulls out two more packs of Pop-Tarts. He hands me one, "You want another?"

I take one and I open it. I begin to eat the two tarts inside the pack. He did the same. Riley tells me as he chews, "We better make sure that the ramen are saved; we're eating them for dinner tonight."

I chew and then swallowed, "Where are we going to get the hot water from?"

Riley instantly answers, "Rose, trust me, okay? I promise you, where we're going today will have everything, I'm sure of."

I'm sure of, he said. That got me a little worried. Maybe all of this adrenaline rush is getting too far now. Still—it's really fun and I don't think I want to stop. After our snack and making sure we have enough Pop-Tarts and mini-cakes to go around for the rest of the day, we get up from the sidewalk and we resume walking.

For the next hours, we've been roaming around and passing by different stores to lift for more snacks without getting caught. So far, we drank our first two bottles of iced tea and we ate most of our Pop-Tarts and mini-cakes. Now, we're down to our unopened ramen cups Riley said to save for tonight and two more bottles of iced tea. We even lifted bags of cookies and potato chips from other stores, which was super easy to steal.

I look around the area we're in now; it all seems unfamiliar to me, though Riley seems to know this place. He's been doing all the leading.

"Where are we?" I ask him.

"We're almost there," Riley answers, "Just a few more yards."

Minutes or less later, I guess we made it there. Riley leads me to the front of one of the buildings that seems to be an apartment. "Here we are!"

I examine the exterior of the apartment. It seems run-down with its paint being chipped and the outdoor railings being rusted. I don't seem impressed.

"You took me into an apartment?" I asked him, slightly perplexed.

Riley remarks, "It's not just any apartment, Rose. This was my apartment; the one my brother Jack and I used to live before he died."

Riley then takes out a key from his pocket and he goes to unlock the apartment. Before he opens it, there is an "Eviction Notice" taped on the door. Riley yanks the notice off, crumples it up and then throws it on the ground.

"Are you sure we can get in?" I ask him.

"Of course we can, this is my apartment."

"But that eviction notice…"

"Hey, what they don't know won't hurt them." Riley resumes opening the door and then steps in. He gestures me to get in.

I enter into the old apartment before Riley closes the door and then locks it. I gaze around. It's just so messy and as run-down as the outside. Even the smell is disturbing.

"This was the surprise I wanted to show you. I wanted to hang out in my apartment one last time and I know I cannot go in alone." Riley says. "What do you think?"

"It's—nice." I couldn't think of any comments and I know it's a lie but I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"I know it's a shit-house, but it's my home. Come on, let me show you around."

It wasn't much to show around. It's a small apartment with only two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a kitchen attached to the living room. I'm just surprised that most of his furniture is still in here. However, the living room was the hardest to look at because there are some faded bloodstains on the floor and some on the walls. It's horrifying; I remembered Riley saying that this is where his brother and his friends died.

"I'm sorry about your brother." I say to him.

"It's alright," Riley says, "The living room is normally the only place I refused to stay into."

"I understand that."

"Let's go into the bedroom."

We went to one of the two bedrooms; the one Riley said he stayed into. Inside wasn't that much either. Just a floor mattress with sheets and pillows, a lamp on the floor, a small table, a flat-screen TV and a sliding door closet that is nearly empty. I go over to the table for a moment to check around. Nothing but an abandoned pack of cigarettes, a lighter and a fallen picture frame.

I flip up the picture frame. There is no photo and the glass is shattered.

Riley informs, "That was supposed to be a photo of me and Jack. I broke the frame out of rage and grief and then I took the picture out. It's lost."

"I'm sorry." I say as I put the frame back. I stare at the pack of cigarettes. "Do you smoke?"

"Not anymore. Those were Jack's. I quit smoking ever since he died and before I went to heroin and other drugs. Even though I don't smoke anymore, I still kept his unused cigarettes to remember him by."

I always hated smoking. It reminds me so much of Lauren.

Riley notices me. He sets his hand on my shoulder, "Hey, it's okay. If you hate it then I won't force it. I don't even have plans to go back to smoking anyway." He then takes his hand off me, "Now, let's have some ramen and some vodka mixed with iced tea."

I'm reluctant about the vodka with iced tea, but all I want to do for now is spend some more time alone with Riley.

We boiled some water in a tea kettle (that is still sitting on top of the stove ever since he abandoned the apartment) and by the time it whistles, we carefully pour the boiling hot water into two cups of instant ramen. As soon as the noodles are cooked into the boiled water, we ate them. All a while, we stayed in the kitchen, ignoring the horrid mess in the living room.

By the time we're done, Riley got out the vodka and whatever bottle iced tea we have left. Riley got out a couple of cups and I pour the iced tea into them. Next, he opens the alcohol and he pours them into the cups as it mixes with the iced tea. After our second toast, he goes to drinking them. I was scared at first but when I take my first sip of alcohol—I realized how good it can get.

Later…

The bottle was left with only an inch's amount. I never knew how much we drank despite it was my first time.

Riley and I are laughing uproariously at the fun we're having. He piggybacks me back into his room and then he playfully drops me on the floor mattress. With me lying on my back, Riley gets on top of me with his face near mines. My heart is racing rapidly when I gaze the tan hedgehog in the eyes. I never knew he can be so good-looking from this close.

Seconds later, our wild laughter dies down though we resume smiling at one another. Without warning—Riley kisses me on the lips. He has his hand behind my head as he pulls me close to him and I have both of my hands around his neck.

We passionately made out; it quickly went to the next level when we insert our tongues into each other's mouths. Suddenly—our ardent make-out session turns to second base.

Riley breaks apart for a moment so he can remove his flannel shirt. Then, he strips off his shirt, revealing his entire body to me. I moan and blush at the sight of his upper body. He picks me and he strips me off for me; first my jacket and then I raised my arms up so he can remove my tank top. I lie back down to allow him to remove my shorts before he does the same to his jeans.

With only in our undergarments, Riley and I resume the steamy make-out session. Our tongues are battling together within our mouths and I could feel some saliva coming out. The arousal in between us increases. We break apart once again.

Without anymore interference—Riley removes my bra and panties and then his briefs. Our first intercourse begins.

All I can remember is that there was a lot of moaning when we made love in a missionary position. Riley has been the dominant one during our session; he's been doing all the work and allowing me to be dominated underneath his force. It was slow at first and then it quickly went rough.

As the session turns rougher, there is a lot of screaming of arousal going on coming from me. Riley forcefully flips me over to force me to be on top of him. He continues to dominate me when our intercourse turns into a forceful and slightly aggressive riding position. We both scream in complete bliss at the feeling. It's painful for me but I truly enjoy it.

I can feel both of our furs sweating from the heat and I can hear Riley grunting at every thrust he makes when he grips tighter onto my upper thighs with his claws nearly sinking into the skin.

The very last thing I remembered is that he released himself inside of me and I did the same afterwards. Once we were done, I collapsed right on top of him…

And everything turns black when I instantly fell asleep into Riley's arms.

* * *

 **Another A/N: This is officially the final appearance of Cream, Blaze, Rouge, Tikal, Mina and Rosy in the story. I never meant to add them in the first place ever since the phone-call scene in Chapter 2, but I feel really bad for those readers who wanted to see them again some time in the future chapters. Unfortunately, the amount of characters is way too high for me to put in one story. I have no choice but to only give them small cameo appearances.  
**

 **PS: No offense to those 7-Eleven goers...**


	19. Noticing

**A/N:** **Okay, I perfectly understand that no one likes the previous chapter. I sincerely apologize for Amy's new delinquent behavior. But I promise you; none of that will be happening anymore in this chapter and the future chapters. It's just that I wanted to add some themes in regards with delinquency because this is something that is very common in homelessness and poverty. I know, I HATE characters like this and I am really reluctant to write characters breaking laws, but it's all part of Riley's behavior and it's something that is very common and happening in real life.  
**

 **I know I went too far with the delinquency acts, so I won't be making more of this. Again, I am truly sorry for making Amy follow Riley's footsteps. She won't be like this anymore and she will be aware of her wrong-doing, I can assure you.**

 **Anyway, here is the next chapter.**

* * *

Noticing

I woke up in a stir after passing out with Riley last night. Even though I don't have much memory—because of my first experience with alcohol last night—though I can tell that it must have been a little crazy. Okay, maybe it's more than just a little.

As I moan in my sleep, I feel a throbbing pain in my head. Is this what a hangover feels like? Because whenever I tried to move my head, it hurts. And when I try to open my eyes, the sunlight through the window keeps blinding me. Also, I feel dizzy and I feel as if I'm about to vomit on the floor.

I sort of remembered sleeping into Riley's arms last night. When I continued to move around on the mattress, tangling myself within the thin sheets—I noticed that Riley is not in bed.

I open my eyes in a wide snap. I quickly sit up on the floor mattress while holding the single blanket to cover up my chest. I look around the room and Riley doesn't seem to be here. His clothes he wore yesterday, including his backpack of our stolen goods, are gone, but mines are still here.

"Riley?" I say his name as I resume looking around. It wasn't that loud; I have a hard time raising my voice. "Riley? Where are you?"

There is no answer. Riley's gone and he just left me here all alone? No, he would never do that to me.

Getting up from the bed—and ignoring the terrible migraine in my head—I gather up all of my clothes and I put them on. By the time I put on my last article of clothing, I leave his bedroom. I continue to search for Riley all over the apartment. I checked every single room—even the living room, the only place in the building where he refused to stay in—and still, there is not a single sign of Riley.

"Riley!" I call out his name during my search. "Riley, where are you?! Where did you go?!"

Again, there is no answer. I'm getting scared now. I didn't want to leave Riley's old apartment yet because I can't remember my way back to the shelter. What's even worse is that I didn't even bring my phone with me yesterday. I have no one to call to; I can't call Jade, August or even one of the shelter kids. Plus, they still didn't know about our yesterday's whereabouts. They would kick our asses if we come back way after curfew. Speaking of which, I wonder what time it is.

I tried to find a clock or something that tells time in this place. The only time I got is in the kitchen where the stove is. The clock on the stove reads after 10:00 am. Holy shit, we've been here overnight. Jade is so going to kick my ass.

I'm starting to panic about the consequences I may receive from Jade and August. They may give me a final warning before I get kicked out of the shelter. Although this is really my first time breaking the shelter rules, so maybe Jade will give me a second chance and then allow me to learn my lesson. But I also made a promise to Riley about not exposing his real identity or what we've been secretly doing behind their backs. That latter thought is panicking me more.

Hoping to wait for Riley from wherever he is at—and I'll probably yell at him for leaving me behind here all alone—I decided to check around the apartment some more even though there is hardly anything here. With nothing else in the kitchen and living room, I went to Jack's—Riley's brother's—bedroom.

I peak through the opened doorway of the brother's room. It's emptier than Riley's room; there is nothing there expect for a single floor mattress with no pillows and bed sheets. I guess Riley emptied all of his stuff out when he died. Despite the room's emptiness, I look around anyway.

I step into the room and I noticed the same sliding door closet similar to Riley's. Wanting and feeling inquisitive about his belongings allegedly stuffed in there, I go over to the closet. I grab onto the knob and I slide the door open. I was right. The closet is full of his brother's stuff. Everything from bed sheets to clothes and there are boxes being stacked and squeezed in there.

As I examine the closet's interior, there are also some bags of illegal drugs that I am way too afraid to even touch or find out what they are. I can definitely tell that Riley and Jack came from a bad background. I try my best to ignore all of the unused drugs in the closet and I continue to examine the rest of the storage.

What really caught my eye is a photo attached to one of the boxes down at the bottom. I know I'm not supposed to touch anyone's personal belongings albeit I want to at least take a look of the photo Riley left there. I crouch down to reach to the photo and I detach it from the box, which was taped there.

I stare at the photo. It's probably from the broken picture frame I saw in Riley's room that he took out of and he said he lost. I examine carefully at it. It's a selfie of both Riley and, who I assume is his late-brother, Jack. The two are standing right in front of a building's wall that is covered with graffiti and I can see a few cans of spray paints on the ground. They must've had a really close bonding with one another. I can tell by the way they looked.

But then, my eyes are deeply focused on Jack. I can't help but to notice that he shares some resemblance of Riley except Jack's fur is light brown. He looks familiar… so familiar… though I can't recall much.

Could Jack be the one who…? No—he can't be. I shake that thought out of my head. I thought, maybe that was a different light brown hedgehog who raped me. It's not uncommon for species to have similar colors on their furs.

I become so lost at the photo of Jack and Riley that I jump at the sound of the front door knocking.

"Shit," I curse to myself in a whisper. Before I head to the door, I shove the picture into my shorts' pocket because I wanted to hold on to it (and then show it to Riley and ask him some questions about Jack if I ever find him). With anxiety increasing in my chest, I quietly walk up to the door.

I just hope it's not the police or anything like that. Just to make sure, I peak through the peep-hole. Through the fish-eyed view, I'm glad that it's not the police at all, but someone else.

Reluctantly, I open the door. I make unwanted eye contact with him.

"Sonic," I begin, "What are you doing here?"

Sonic is standing there with his arms crossed and he's looking at me with a mixture of solemnity, concern and worry. Of course, he's not alone; the other four—Shadow, Silver, Scourge and Manic—are standing on the sidewalk, further away from the entrance.

Sonic answers, "Amy Rose, we need to talk."

I was about to slam the door—as if it's my own place—right to his face. Sonic averts the door from closing and then he steps in. He—meticulously and without even hurting me—drags me outside. The apartment's door closes. We begin to confront right in front of his housemates.

He resumes, "Amy, there's something you should know. And just so you know, we are doing this because we really care about your safety." The guys nod behind him.

"How did you even find me?" I ask him, disregarding his question. He didn't say.

Sonic continues, "Please just listen to me. We ran into Cream and the other girls and while we were talking, they mentioned that they caught you shoplifting from a convenience store with some guy."

I sigh in annoyance, "That Ri—Jack."

"We know, Cream described what he looked like." Sonic is giving me the look that a father would give to his daughter. "Amy, this is important. I knew that there is something wrong with this Jack person you're hanging out with at the homeless shelter. Is there anything else we should know about the other kids you've been staying with?"

"No," I dryly answer.

Sonic sighs, "The point is that—we're worried of what Jack has been causing you. The very last thing we want to know is you getting arrested and being sent to jail, just like your stepmom. That's why we came. We want to help you. And just so you know—Cream, Blaze, Rouge, Tikal and Mina are all worried as much as we are. We're not sure about Rosy though."

I can't believe he's doing this again. Sonic is treating me like a baby again. However, as I listened carefully to his words, I feel a little touched to hear about them being worried for me. No one has been worried for me.

I glance at the other four behind Sonic, "Do you?"

They all answered yes.

I return the eye contact with Sonic again. Sonic resumes, "Amy, even though you may not want my—well, our—help anymore… we still want to be there for you. And please confront Jack because I'm afraid that he's gone way too far into getting you in more trouble. We really don't want you to end up in jail."

I don't know what to say. I wanted to tell him that it's really none of his business about what I'm doing in my new life and that I'm happy with Riley without him. But—Sonic is right. I have gone too far. I mentally recall all the things Riley and I have done together lately. I have gone too far. Riley is manipulating me into causing the mutual amount of delinquency behind everybody's backs. Although at the same time, I don't want to leave Riley because of his own personal issues. I don't want to see him suffer through never-ending grief about his brother.

"And Amy?" I snap out of my trance of memories when Sonic says my name, "I know you're still pissed off at me for that—thing—I did to you. But let me tell you this," Sonic gets closer to me and without giving me a chance to notice…

He pulls me into a hug. Sonic whispers to my ear, "I still have feelings for you, Amy. All throughout this time, I couldn't stop thinking about you… and I was hoping that you would come back to me."

I feel a sense of contriteness now. I am still pissed off at Sonic for posting that embarrassing photo of me on a social network without my consent as some kind of prank, which led to our break up. Although what he said was deeply sincere and I can't help but to feel some warmth from him. After all, he did remove that photo of me despite my persistent anger towards him. Sonic did apologize for it and… I guess it was because I had a hard time forgiving him when I couldn't forget all the humiliation I suffered through.

As for Cream, Blaze, Tikal, Rouge and Mina—and maybe Rosy—I guess I did went too far into avoiding them when it was my fault for not coming clean to my own friends before I lost them. However, I'm still mad at them for leaving me on the streets over the phone when I was trying to find a temporary place to stay. Still, hearing about their concern for me made me realized that I can't stay mad at them. Maybe if I have the chance—not sure when—we may apologize to each other and probably be friends again.

While I was thinking this through, Sonic is still holding me into his embrace. We've been quiet and within seconds… I slowly bring my arms up above his upper back to return his hug.

I wanted to tell him the bad news that I'm dating Riley now though I'm having second thoughts about this. Because of both Sonic and Riley, I'm now torn in between the two of them.

"Amy, what are you doing?"

I gasp and then immediately break off the hug from Sonic. We both look to see who called my name. It's Riley.

Riley shows up to the front of his apartment with the same clothes he was wearing yesterday and his backpack. He gave me a disdainful look, presumably because he saw me hugging Sonic. He stomps towards me, pushing away Sonic's housemates and then Sonic.

"What are they doing here?" Riley asks me, showing a hint of distaste.

I was about to tell him that they just showed up at the doorway, but something else interfered with me.

"I should be the one asking you," I tell him, "Why did you ditch me this morning?" I didn't want to bring up the fact at he made love with me last night all intoxicated; I don't want to even mention this right in front of Sonic.

"I—"Riley hesitates, "It's just some business." I can tell that he's lying. He impetuously changes the subject, "Now, answer my question."

Before I can answer, I subtly glance at Sonic. I sigh, knowing that I cannot lie, "They're just here to check up on me."

"For what?" Riley is getting a little tense.

I'm hesitating. The very last thing I wanted is this drama between me, Sonic and Riley. I don't want some kind of violent love triangle. I keep getting these looks from Sonic and the rest of the guys.

Without thinking straight, I say, "We really need to get back at the shelter." I stroll away from the apartment, urging Riley to come with me, "Come on, we need to get going."

Riley stops me from walking away without a proper answer; he grips on my wrist and I can feel the tightness hurting my skin, "No! I want to know now."

I try to pull away but Riley's grip is strong. I begin to wince.

"Don't touch her!" Sonic steps in between us, defending me. He tries to get Riley to let go with force.

Out of anger, Riley—finally letting go of me—exclaims at him, "You stay out of this! This has nothing to do with you!"

"Yes it does!" Sonic retaliates, "I'm just here to make sure that she's okay!"

"Well, everything's fine! And you really need to mind your own fucking business! Amy doesn't need any more of your bullshit! She doesn't deserve you!" Riley stands closer to Sonic, "Just because you're her ex, doesn't mean you have to fuck around with her all the time!"

Sonic instantly lost his cool at Riley's insult. Out if anger—Sonic violently shoves Riley out of his face. He throws him on the ground.

"Sonic! Riley!" I shout at the two, accidentally revealing Riley's real name. Riley gets up from the ground, while he aggressively removes his backpack from his shoulders before throwing it on the ground, and instantly retaliate Sonic. He has his hands gripping on his collarbone as he shoves him back on the concrete.

Then, Shadow, Silver, Scourge and Manic all got in it. They're shouting Sonic's name and trying to get him to stop. There's so much screaming and cussing, mostly from the blue hedgehog and tan hedgehog. I can also hear multiple thuds from all that hitting.

All a while, I fearfully watch the fight between Sonic and Riley on the sidewalk. There's a lot of tackling, throwing and shoving. Sonic threw some punches on Riley's face and Riley went too far into slamming Sonic's head against the nearby fence. I can already see some bloody cuts between the two and some splatters of red are staining the ground. I cannot see anymore of this. I'm too afraid that things will get worst if I get in between them.

Finally, after several minutes of the violent battling, screaming and cursing, the four guys got Sonic off Riley; Shadow and Scourge—being the strongest of the four—got Sonic locked into their arms averting him from getting near Riley. Silver and Manic both tried to make sure that Riley doesn't come an inch near him. Riley spits at Sonic before he gets pushed away, causing my ex to have the urge to retaliate more.

"Sonic, stop! That's enough!" One of them says to him.

I get behind Riley and I perceive them taking deep breaths and glaring at one another in so much abhorrence and disdain. Both Sonic and Riley are already covered with bruises and bloody wounds. The sight of it is not only sickening me, also bringing more fear to me. The glare of silent hatred continues for countless seconds.

I touch Riley's shoulder, urging him to walk back to the shelter. I broke the silence, "Riley… we have to go now."

Without even remarking, Riley pulls himself off and retrieves his backpack. He turns to a different direction and stomps away, ignoring all of his pain and everyone else. I watch him until he yards away from me.

I turn back to the others. Sonic frees himself from his friends' hold.

"Why did you call him Riley?" his brother asks, "I thought his name is Jack."

I didn't answer him. Sonic comes near me (and I can hear him wincing).

"Amy, please come back to my house," Sonic informs me, taking more deep breaths, "I don't want you living in that place with him anymore."

I look back at Riley still walking away in the distance, still refusing to turn back around. I look back at him, feeling the unwanted remorse.

"I'm sorry, Sonic," I answer, already feeling sad, "But I can't right now." I pause, "All of the other kids back at the shelter need me." What I said is honest; I can't let Jade worry about me and Riley being missing.

"Amy…"

After when Sonic says my name in sadness, I turn around and I walk away. As I continue to stroll to Riley, I look back at him and the others. Their worry and sadness is hurting me as much as them.

I really don't have a choice.

I look back to my front and I fast walk to Riley.


	20. Reading

**A/N: I'm getting a little emotional in this chapter now. Whilst I was writing this, I was listening to the song "Sleep Well, My Angel" by We Are the Fallen and the song was fitting. I'm tearing up now :'(**

 **If you want to feel what I'm feeling, listen to "Sleep Well, My Angel" by We Are the Fallen as you get to the part where Amy receives a letter.**

* * *

Reading

"Where have you two been?" Jade exclaims at the both of us by the time Riley and I step through the entrance. I show a lot of regret and Riley is showing nothing but nonchalance. "Both of you were gone overnight! Do you even know how worried we've been while you were away?"

We became silent, only my instincts are telling me to come clean. I just want to burst out at her to tell her that this wasn't my fault and that Riley has been controlling me into following his actions. However, that would break the pact between me and Riley; I promised him not to come clean about Riley's real name and not even mention what we did overnight.

I don't even know what's more important: telling the truth to the adults or keeping promises with someone who is going through pain and grief.

"Well?" Jade demands.

"I'm really sorry," is all I say to her.

After making eye contact with the two of us, Jade glances at me, "Amy, I expected this from Jack, but not from you. I'm deeply disappointed that you would stay out overnight without my consent. This isn't exactly like you. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Riley and I make glance at one another. I then gaze back at Jade, "Jade, I know what I did was wrong and I am truly sorry. It was inadvertently instinctive. I would tell you but—"

"But what?"

I'm sorry, Riley. I have to do what I have to do. I take a deep breath.

"I want to speak to you alone," I say. She exhales for a moment and then nods.

Jade looks over to Riley, who is still acting nonchalant about our consequences. She tells him, "Jack, before you take off, I need to inform you that you are not off the hook. We still need to discuss about your behavior. This is a serious matter."

"Okay," Riley coldly answers.

"And whatever it is that you two got involved into, please ask August to help you treat those cuts and bruises before they get infected." She was referring to his injuries from the physical brawl he got into with Sonic, which none of us explained.

Riley exhales in exasperation as he takes off into another room. As soon as he's left, Jade returns the eye contact with me.

I begin, admitting all the truth. For the next minutes, I admit everything that has happened between Riley and I. I mentioned that his real name is Riley and he referred to himself as Jack after his deceased brother. Then, I summarized everything we did together from shoplifting to sneaking out at night and even breaking into his own apartment that is up for eviction. I told her that everything was entirely his idea and his own fault and I was nothing but the follower who was under his pressure. When I woke up this morning, I found out that he left me behind without notifying me or telling me why. Finally, I added that I was really reluctant to do all of these things Riley told me to do and that it was never my intention to go that far. I was just under a lot of pressure. I never meant to.

Jade heard everything I said. She believed me.

"Amy," she replies, "It takes a lot of audacity to tell the truth and I really appreciate that. Unfortunately, I am still disappointed about you breaking the policy of this shelter and that is something I do not tolerate. Even though this is your very first time, I have no choice but to give you a warning."

I remain silent. "I understand."

~~X~~

The next day…

It is the early afternoon and it's very cloudy outside. The clouds are heavy and dark enough to rain. All I'm wearing is a grey long-sleeved shirt, pajama shorts and a pair of knee high socks with kittens on it. Despite the weather, I decided to just sit outside on the shelter's entrance steps, leaning against the railings with my arms crossed and tucked into my sleeves. The reason why is because I've been really depressed about yesterday's incident. I have been warned by Jade and I'm not sure what's going to happen to Riley now that I revealed the truth about him without him knowing. Riley and I remained separated throughout the entire day. I bet he's pissed off at me.

I remained seated on the porch doing nothing but to stare at the ground, which smells of damp leaves. I allowed my depression to do the job for me. I sniff a bit and I could've sworn that a teardrop is running down my cheek. It did; I didn't wipe it away though, I let it drop to the ground.

I hear the door open and someone stepping out. I didn't bother to turn around to see who it is. The door closes and someone stands behind me for only a moment before sitting down next to me.

"Hey," Without moving my head, I avert my eyes to Cloudy Mist the Chinchilla then avert back to the ground. She's wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with thumbholes—that allows her sleeves to be kept pulled up so her self-injury cuts are concealed—a pair of fleece pajama pants and bunny slippers. Her purple-dyed emo hair is tied into a half-ponytail and her bangs are left loose. She's also holding something in her crossed arms.

"You okay?" Cloudy asks me. I didn't say anything at all. I just shrug my shoulder and then shook my head, with more tears dropping to the ground.

Cloudy then takes something out from her now uncrossed armed and then hands it to me. "Here, this is for you."

I look at it. "What is that?"

She answers, "It's a letter addressed to you. Apparently, it's dated back weeks ago." I take the envelope—that is all wrinkled—and I examine it. It's from my Dad.

Cloudy continues, "I found it hiding underneath the table in the storage. It must've fallen there weeks ago when Jade and August were putting your things in there. Don't worry; none of us read it."

"Thanks," I answer. I continue to remain sad. She seems to notice me.

Cloudy wraps her arm around my shoulders to pull me into a warming hug. "Hey, listen. Everything's going to be alright. After all, you did save my new friendship with Satellite Nova by the time you came here. Without you, I wouldn't have been here to stay without causing anymore trouble." She smiles.

"It's true."

I can sense Cloudy gazing up at the skies. She glances back at me. "Don't you want to come back inside? It looks like it's about to rain."

I thought about it for a second, "No, I'm going to stay here for a while."

"Okay," Cloudy concludes as she lets her arm off my shoulders. She continues to make eye contact with me. "Just so you know, Amy, we're here for you. If you ever need us, we'll always be there for you."

I begin to smile at her remark. I feel touched by her words. "Thanks."

Cloudy smiles one last time. Then she gets up from the porch and then went back inside.

By the time she left, I continue to stare at the unopened envelope. I unseal it and then take out the letter inside. I begin to unfold the written paper. I read the letter from my Dad weeks ago.

 **Amy Rose,**

 **I'm sorry it has come to this. I know that I'm not the father you thought I would be but nobody's perfect. I am now aware how terrible and neglectful I have become when your mother, Emma Rosaline, committed suicide and I shortly married Lauren. I know how deeply selfish I have been and I'm truly sorry for my wrong-doing. You were right, I was blinded by Lauren. I now know her true colors, which is why we are no longer together. We are divorced now. It was wrong for me to not listen nor believe anything my own daughter says to me just because I thought you were troubled after your mother's death. Most importantly, I want to apologize for my cruelty, heartlessness and selfishness in the past. I am deeply sorry for not showing up at your mother's funeral, I am sorry for leaving you all alone with nobody, and I am sorry for all the lies I have told you. I promise you. Everything is going to change if you ever decide to leave the homeless youth shelter. I promise to be a better father to you. There will be no more lies, no more hiding and no more unfaithfulness. I know you're probably pissed off at me for all of my wrong-doing and you probably wouldn't want to come home ever again, which is why I decided to drop off your stuff in the shelter. But please listen to me, Amy Rose. Even though you chose to stay there and not come home or even if you hate me forever and refused to even talk to me, you will always be my only daughter… and I love you.**

 **Love always,**

 **Your father, Aaron.**

I became emotional while reading the letter. I cry more tears and I have my hand inside my sleeve touching my mouth. The paper in my hand is starting to be stained with my waterworks. It's true that I'm still furious at my father for what he has done, but he sounded so sincere when he wrote this.

I squeezed the letter into my hand as I grip it into a fist. I can't even tell if I should forgive him or stay mad at him and not forgive him at all. What's the point of forgiving if I cannot forget it all? Overall, what made me sad is the guilt he's causing me when he wrote how deeply apologetic he is and how severely callous I became towards him before I came here.

I drop the now crumpled note on the ground. I have both of my hands to my face. Without leaving the porch, I sob into my sleeve-covered palms. I cry and cry with more tears soaking through my sleeves.

Suddenly, I hear a faint thunder coming from the distance.


	21. Raining

**A/N: Get ready for some twists in this chapter.**

 **And Sonamy fans, you're going to love this.**

* * *

Raining

The rain already soaked through my clothes when the storm hits. I went inside and grabbed one of the towels from the bathroom to dry my quills and fur. Then I looked through the clothing storage to search for some dry clean shirts. I take the first one I see—a black and red striped T-shirt—and bring it to the bunk room to change. I decided to wear the same denim shorts from yesterday.

While all alone in the bunk room, I take off my wet clothes before throwing them into the hamper for a wash. I put on a new pair of socks and black Converse sneakers, then the shirt and finally the jean shorts. As I stand up and pull up the shorts to button and then zip up, I feel something in the back pocket. I begin to repeatedly touch the back pockets to feel for more items. It's only one and it feels flat and paper-like.

I tug my hand into the full back pocket and I take out what was inside. I completely forgot—I took Riley's personal photo of him and Jack from his apartment without his consent.

I unfold the picture and I continue to stare at the photo of the two brothers. Riley's brother still seems so familiar to me. I try to time travel to the past and find out where, how and if I ever met Jack in person. There isn't much to recall because the entire trauma I went through has blacked out my memory.

I became lost in the selfie. I'm trying to figure out if…

"Rose?" I jump in fear when I heard Riley say my name. I turn around to face him. He's wearing a black beanie hat, a zipped-up jacket, jeans and sneakers.

"You scared me," I tell him, my heart racing with anxiety.

"Is that my picture?" Riley asks, pointing out at the photo I'm holding, "What are you doing with that? And was that from my apartment?"

I answered all of his questions with integrity. "Riley, there's something I want to ask you and it's very important."

"Well can it wait?" Riley interrupts as he strips his backpack off to open it, "I have some plans to do after the storm goes away."

"Plans? What plans? Is this one of your illegal antics again?"

"Sort of, don't tell anyone, but I'm getting out of this dump." I became offended when Riley insulted this shelter. "I'm going to live with some friends I know outside of this shithole shelter."

"Why did you even come here in the first place if you hate it?" He's about to answer, but I quickly sweep it away because I have something more important to talk to him about. "Look, it doesn't even matter. What matters is where the hell did you go yesterday morning before I woke up? You left me all alone in the apartment right after we got drunk and then made love. Is this how you treat your new girlfriend?" I became emotional; what kind of boyfriend would abandon his girlfriend after making love for the first time?

Riley scoffs, "Girlfriend? You're not my girlfriend at all. You and I are not even together. And besides, I don't need a serious girlfriend in my life; I don't fucking do relationships. I can fuck any girls whenever I want."

I'm shocked. It turns out that all along, Riley is nothing but a player, "What? But you—"

"Look, just because I said 'I liked you' and just because I felt bad about what your stepmom did to you, doesn't mean I want to have a relationship with you. And all of those things we did together mean nothing." Riley digs through his backpack and then takes out a few items in one hand. He tosses them into my hands, "Here. Hold on to them and don't open them."

I examine the five little plastic zip-lock bags he gave me. Inside these five baggies are full of green stuff and even if they're closed tight, they smell. "What are these?"

"Those are weed," Riley sinisterly answers, "I got them from a friend yesterday morning. That's why I left."

"We—What are you even going to do with them?!" I'm angered about Riley possessing marijuana.

"Part of my next plan," Riley becomes more malevolent than ever, "As soon as the storm dies down, you and me are going to get back at that asshole ex-boyfriend's of yours and his friends; we're going to break into his house, plant all five of those weed into their possession, call the cops and BOOM! All five of them will be arrested."

I'm dismayed. Riley is seeking revenge on Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Manic and Scourge by planting an illegal drug possession. And they didn't even do anything but protect me from Lauren and checking up on me to see if I'm okay.

"So, Rose," Riley concludes, "What do you say?"

I shake my head, "NO!" I throw all five bags at his face at once. The bags suddenly opened by themselves and all of the marijuana scatters all over the floor. The smell is strong enough to fill the entire room. "Riley, this has gone too far! Sonic was right about you all along, you are nothing but a troubled demon! I can't believe that I fell for somebody like you! I actually feel sorry for you about you losing your brother and all of the other shit you did, but—this is where I draw the line!"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm through with you!" I am about to leave the room, away from him. Riley stops me.

"Hey!" I turn around to face him. Riley says, "If you're through with me, then I want that photo you stole from me back!"

"I didn't steal it! I was going to show it to you and then ask some questions about Jack."

"What more fucking evidence do you want?!"

Without even answering him—and out of callousness—I grab his backpack away from him. I rummage through his things to search for more photos of his brother.

"What are you doing? Amy! Stop!" Riley is trying to take his pack back from me. I kept it away as he reaches.

I found just what I was looking for. I take out a larger printed photo out and I examine the image while dropping his backpack on the floor. All a while, Riley—sharing the same amount of anger as I do—is reaching for it as I keep it away from him so I can perceive. I face away from him with my hand out to avert him.

Just when I look through the printed digital picture… I'm even more shocked. I gasp with some memory coming back to me.

It's a photo of a light brown hedgehog, an orange shrew and a green wildcat all gathered together with beer, drugs and cigarettes scattered all over the table. Above the image is a hand-written message: **In Loving Memory of Jack "Boss," Blade and Edge.**

I knew it all along…

"Amy! Give that back!" Riley reaches for the image one last time. I turn around to face him, finally showing him the picture.

"He raped me," I say to him.

Riley finally ceases, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

I slam the picture to his chest, "Your brother! Jack! He was the one who raped me! And so did his two friends in that picture!" I am about to burst out tears.

"You're fucking lying," Riley growls.

"No! I'm not! I saw it with my own two eyes and I finally remembered who they are now! Jack and his two friends were the ones who raped me before they died! I can't believe that I dated a younger brother of a rapist that tortured me in the alley!"

Riley retaliates, "And I can't believe I was with a lying bitch that is suddenly losing her own fucking mind!" I was about to fight back, but, "You know what, Amy Rose?! Get the fuck out of this shelter! No one wants you here anymore! Just get out of my face and leave!"

I have no words to say about Riley's callousness. I'm bursting out more tears. Without even thinking, I follow what he said on the last part. I turn away—and I ran out.

I ran through the shelter, ignoring the calls of the shelter kids as they see me running away. With nothing but the clothes on my back—and not even a raincoat or an umbrella—I exit the shelter in complete distress outside in the heavy rain.

For miles on foot, I ran through the rain storm as I'm already soaking wet. I ran through the streets, risking myself to be run over by passing cars. I hear them honking at me in anger but I don't even care. I even pass by other species strolling by with their raincoats and umbrellas. Without even apologizing to them, I push them all away. Some are pissed at me and some are worried about me running away without the right rain attire. I don't even care. I just want to run away from the shelter and be away from Riley.

I've lost count of how many miles I ran albeit I'm nearly out of breath and almost to the point of exhaustion. Despite it all, I kept up the pace. I continue to run through blocks and streets without counting the minutes.

For what feels like two hours or more, I made it to my house. Remembering the letter from my dad, he said he promised to be a better father to me if I ever chose to come back home. I just hope he's still there. Panting, I run to my house's entrance.

I grab for the door and I forgot that I didn't bring my keys on the first day I ran away from home. I grab the knob and I try to turn it. It's locked. I struggle for several seconds until I release my grip and then raise both of my hands up. I begin to bang on the door with both hands.

"Dad!" I shout out in the rain, "Dad! It's me, Amy!" I bang on the door many more times in both distress and anger. There's no answer from him. "DAD!"

Giving up and knowing that he's not answering my distressed calls, I bang on the door one last time before I run around the house to look through the first-story windows to see if he's ever home. I see one—that leads to the kitchen—and through the glass, I can see that all of the lights are out. Even in the dark, I can see that the entire kitchen is empty. I run to the next window that leads to the living room. There, it shares the same amount of darkness back in the kitchen and just like the latter there is no more furniture. Everything is empty.

"Dad!" I scream out through the glass, "Dad!" I gave a little bang through the window, nearly breaking the glass. There's still no answer from Aaron.

Lightning appears and then thunder. I gasp in fright. I run back to the front door. Whilst calling out my dad's name and banging on the door one last time, I realized that I am running out of energy and I'm getting really cold from the rain. I'm giving up.

I realize what this means. If all of the lights are out, all of the furniture is gone and the house if left entirely abandoned—then that means my dad left without a trace. He never explained where he's going or what's going to happen to him. He just left me there.

I get down on the ground and I let out a loud sob. I put myself into a fetal position right on the front door pavement. With my legs hugging tightly to my chest, I sob hysterically. The rain becomes heavier by the second, drowning me within the flood. Another lightning and thunder appears, scaring me some more. I close my eyes shut while still crying in distress and sorrow to blind myself from the oncoming lightning.

I stay like this for a long time.

For what seems like minutes ticking by, I hear a car honking as the vehicle drives up to my house's driveway. I see headlights before closing my eyes again.

"Please, just run me over already," I sob.

The headlights go out. The driver's car door opens and then closes as it remains idled. I didn't see who it was although I sense that he is running towards me with footsteps splashing against the rain-covered pavement.

The next thing I know, I am being wrapped around into someone's arms. He says to me in a whisper. "Shh, it's okay, Amy. I'm here now. You're safe now."

I recognized that voice. It's Sonic. After comforting me for a moment, he carries me into his car. He opens the back seat and very meticulously puts me in there. Once I'm inside the car, he brings himself inside the back seat of the car with me. Sonic closes the door on his way in.

Once it's just the two of us in his locked car, Sonic—wearing a black T-shirt and jeans—takes one of the large towels out from the passenger seat. He wraps it around me to both dry me off from the rain and to keep me warm. He did the same to himself with the second towel from the passenger seat.

"Sonic," I said, shivering and wrapping the towel around me like a blanket, "Why… how did you find me…?"

Sonic dries his quills with his towel. When he pulls it down, his quills becomes tousled in a most attractive way. "I went to come and check up on you at the shelter. But on my way there, I saw you running away out in the rain with nothing and I got worried. I tried to follow you and then call out to you but the storm is really heavy to hear through and you were running away so fast. I didn't know where you were going but the first thing that came up to my mind is your dad's place."

He caresses my cheek with the palm of his hand. Sonic asks, "Why did you run off like that in the middle of the storm?"

I tear up again while touching Sonic's wrist to pull is down from my cheek, "You were right about him. He is bad news and I have made a terrible mistake to stay with him. I'm now afraid to stay in the shelter now because of him so I ran out and ran to my dad's house to see if I can come back home. But when I try to," I hiccup, "he's not answering me and I look through the windows and I noticed that everything in the house is gone. Including him. I have no idea where he run off to." I pause and then use my time to sob, "Sonic, I don't know what to do. I'm really scared."

Lastly, I cry onto Sonic's chest, allowing myself to be put into his hold. I cry for several seconds.

Sonic has been listening to me and comforting me. I can feel him stroking his fingers through my quills and rubbing my back with his free hand. He whispers to me, "Amy, I'm sorry to say this, but—your father is dead."

My teary eyes widen, "What?"

He continues, "He was found hanging himself in the living room of the house about less than a week ago. He committed suicide. By the time he was taken away, all of his things have been repossessed." Sonic pauses to pull me off for an eye contact underneath the dark, "I'm really sorry, Amy."

I lament, "No…" I cry some more. I can't believe the sudden unexpected fate of my dad.

Sonic persistently watches me sob. He carefully places his finger underneath my chin to lift it up. I see him smile in warmth.

"Sonic…"

"Hey, hey," Sonic whispers to me, "Don't worry, Ames. I know that you don't have anyone else in your family now, but you're always welcome to stay with me whenever you're in need. If you ever wanted to leave the shelter, I'd be happy to take care of you."

Then, Sonic wipes the tears off my eyes with his fingertips. Very gently—he brings me into a kiss. It's been forever since the last time I kissed Sonic. I'm finally glad enough that he came clean to me that he still has feelings for me after all the things I've been through. I'm just glad that he still cares about me now. Within moments, I ardently kiss him back.

Our ardent make-out session rises to the next level when our tongues are suddenly attacking with one another. Sonic then breaks off the kiss to transfer his lips to my neck. He purrs and I feel myself shivering underneath his gentle touch. Seconds afterwards, he goes back to kissing me on the lips with more vigorous tongue in addition to moaning in passion.

The next thing I knew, Sonic strips off my drenched clothes and tosses them on the car's floor. He did the same to his own; then, all of our undergarments are removed and we are left bare. Very gently, Sonic lies me down on the back car seat and then he gets on top of me.

"You okay?" He whispers to me. I nod.

Being as meticulous as he can, Sonic spreads both of my legs apart and he gets in between them. He takes his member and slowly, ever slowly… he inserts it inside me.

For the first time ever, I am finally making love to my first boyfriend before we broke up. My first love. I begin to moan at the feeling of Sonic penetrating me. Our first intercourse—in a missionary formation—is slow at first. Later on, he goes a little faster. At about five thrusts per second. Then, ten per second. It may be painful but it's all worth it.

About half an hour later, Sonic lifts himself up and he sits down on the car seat with his entire back leaning against the back. He pulls me on top of his lap before wrapping my legs around his waists. With me kneeling on him and wrapping my arms around his neck, he reinserts his member back inside me.

He's been dominating me during this whole process of riding. It's the same speed as the first. Within minutes, he decides to pick up the pace to an even higher speed. I am moaning in complete bliss and delight at the feeling. Apart from hearing the heavy rain outside of the car, I am hearing nothing but the sounds of our passion.

Later, Sonic becomes rougher and faster than I expected at first. My moans are turning into screams now. We both can feel the heat within the car; the perspiration must've already steamed the car windows and both of our furs are glistening with sweat.

"Sonic…" I cry his name.

Sonic resumes dominating me in our intercourse. In addition, he sinks his teeth into my neck. I shrieked at the painful love bite on my neck. He keeps his teeth into my neck while continuing to penetrate me into even a higher speed. Sonic's claws are digging into my thighs and I'm gripping tighter onto his upper back. He lets out an aggressive growl. I continue to cry out, moan and repeatedly pant at his new rough speed.

Minutes later, Sonic lets out his final thrust as he growls and I exhaled deeply when we both released ourselves at the same time. When it's all out, I collapsed myself on top of him, panting in exhaustion.

Sonic carefully lifts my head up, places his hand behind my head and we both make out some more.

For the first time… I have never felt this much real and true passion before in my life.


	22. Tearing

Tearing

We seemingly fell asleep in the back of the car right after our first intercourse. Sonic is laying down on his back—with his entire body taking over the car seat—and I'm laying myself on top of him with the side of my head and palm resting on his chest and his arm wrapping around me to hold me close. I can hear his heartbeat. I can feel his chest rising and falling as he breathes. The two of us are still exploited with our clothes piling somewhere in the bottom of the car.

I tilt my head up a little to see his face underneath the dark shade. His eyes are closed. Sonic is peacefully sleeping or dozing off.

I begin to feel some warmth within me from his comfort and passion. This is making me smile, despite that I still feel some melancholy within me. I snuggle myself closer into his embrace. I then let out a soft sigh of warmth.

Sonic apparently woke up when he heard and felt me moving up on top of him. I can feel him tilting his head down to look at me.

"Amy?" He whispers my name. I look up at him again.

"Hm?"

Sonic was silent for a moment before he speaks. "I want you to move in with me."

My ears perk up in surprise. "Why?"

"Because I want you to. You even said it yourself: that you're afraid of living in the shelter because of Jack." I didn't expect him to say this. This is so suddenly. Sonic continues, "The very last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt. And I know that you cannot take care of yourself. Now that both of your parents are gone and your stepmom is arrested—I'm all you have now." He sighs as he strokes my upper back, "I love you, Amy, and it'll hurt me more to see you living in an unprotected environment."

We became silent. During our moment of silence, I thought about what he said. Then, I break it, coming clean.

"Sonic, I understand how much you wanted to take care of me, but—I'm still seventeen. I'm still a minor and I can't leave the shelter until I'm eighteen or over. Once I hit that age, I have a choice to either stay or leave." I pause for a moment, trying to think back, "And honestly, I really don't know if I wanted to stay or leave."

Sonic asks, "Why?"

I answer, "Because—"then, I begin to tear up, "all of those other kids in the shelter except for Ri—Jack… they treated me like the brothers and sisters I've ever wanted. We were always there for each other. As for Jade and August, the caretakers of the shelter… they treated me like the proper parents I needed. That's why I didn't want to leave. If I do, then I will miss them.

"But still, I'm torn into pieces because if I stay, then Jack will cause more trouble unless if I report him. If I do, then—who knows what he will do to me for snitching. At the same time, I really don't want to leave my new friends." I pause again, "Sonic, I really don't know what to do at this time."

"What about me?" Sonic asks again.

"Even if I move in with you, I'll still miss Evan, Satellite, Cloudy, Gavin, Jade and August. I wish I could, I really do. But—I'm only months away until I hit my legal age and I really don't want to break anymore laws."

Sonic and I became silent again. Apparently, the both of us are trying to think of a mutual compromise. This lasts for several minutes.

"What if—"Sonic begins, "What if I visit you at the shelter at whatever time I want?"

"But then you will get into another brawl with Jack if you ever see him eye to eye."

"I'll risk myself to get arrested, just for you."

I suddenly came up with a better solution. "I can visit you at your home instead. It's better that way."

I gave Sonic some time to think about it. He says, "I guess, we can make that work."

"Just as long as you take me home straight before curfew. I already got a warning from Jade for leaving the shelter overnight without her consent, and I don't want another."

Sonic smiles, "That, I'm willing to do."

I smile at him back. After a while, we send each other kisses on the lips.

When we were done, your focus aims at the back car window. We noticed that the storm has already stopped after what feels like a few hours. The clouds are lightening up and the rain left a lot of droplets on the glass. I stare at one of them running down to the bottom of the window.

"Looks like the storm ended," Sonic says. He averts his eyes from the window back to me. "What do you want to do now?"

I pick myself up, covering my breasts with my arm, "I want to go back to the shelter."

"Are you sure?"

I nod. "I have to. I ran out through the rain without their consent. They're probably worried sick right now."

We both sit up on the car seat. "What about Jack?"

I begin to recall about Riley earlier before we had that heated argument. "He said he was going out as soon as the storm is over. And there's something you should know." I take a deep breath, "Sonic, Jack's real name is Riley, and before I left today—he said he is going to sneak into your house and then plant marijuana into your and the guys' hold. And then, he'll call the police on you five to have you all arrested for a fake illegal drug possession."

Sonic is wide-eyed in anger. I concluded, "It's his way of getting back at you."

"That fucking asshole." He says underneath his breath.

"Sonic, if you get me back in the shelter in time, maybe I can inform Jade about Riley's next move."

"On it."

As soon as we got our clothes on, Sonic hops into the driver's seat while I did the same to the passenger's seat. Our clothes are still a little damp from the rain and it's giving us the chills, though we tend to ignore it. We both apply our seat belts and Sonic gets the vehicle started. He drives off from my old house and we ride to our next destination.

The drive was about forty to fifty minutes by car, plus stoplights. We would've have gone faster but due to the speed limits and the roads being damp and slippery from the rain, we had no choice. Still, despite the mediocre speed—to prevent getting tickets or slippery road car accidents—we made it to the shelter.

"Here we are," I say.

Sonic is about to pull up to the front, but then he hit the breaks hard when we both saw something in front of the building. "Holy shit," he says underneath his breath.

Through the windshield, there are flashing red and blue lights, a few police officers and everyone in the shelter are standing outside, talking to one another and to the cops.

"What the hell is going on?" Sonic says.

"I'm not sure," I answer. From where I am sitting, I can see Jade is seemingly unhappy about something. Both of her palms are covering her face and her husband August is standing beside her, comforting her with his hands resting on her upper back. All the other kids seem worried as well.

We remained inside the car. Suddenly, the police officers went inside their cruiser and the flashing lights on their vehicle turns off. By the time their car doors are closed, they drive off, heading to a different direction ahead of us.

Sonic has his car parked in front and the two of us unbuckle our seat belts. Then, we open the doors to walk out. I look at the residents of the shelter.

"Amy!" Satellite and Cloudy say my name as I come closer to them. Sonic remains beside his car while I reunite with my friends, watching the entire moment. The two girls gave me a hug. Evan and Gavin both join us.

Jade comes by, "Amy, where were you?"

I break off the group hug, "I'm so sorry, everyone." I step closer to Jade. "Jade, I'm so sorry. Riley did something awful to me. That's why I left earlier. I was so upset and I—"

Jade cuts me off, "It's okay, we know. That's why we got the police involved."

I look around, searching for him, "Where's Riley?"

"He left," August says.

"Left?" I repeated.

August informs, "We don't know where he went though. Shortly after you ran out, Riley disappeared as well. However, we did found marijuana scent all over the bunk room and we knew that it was under Riley's possession."

I ask, "How did you know it was his?"

He continues, "All of us are aware of his previous drug addiction and possession, especially alcohol." August rubs the bridge of his nose, "We tried to help him with that as well before you moved here. We even tried to get him into rehab, but he refused to."

Then Jade says, "Getting back to the police involvement, aside with his illegal marijuana possession, we worried that he may have physically harmed you in any way; the rest of the kids heard the two of you screaming and arguing. By the time they arrived, Riley is already gone. So we told the police to search for him and to put them into their custody."

"What's going to happen to him once the cops take him?" I hear Evan asking from behind me.

August answers for him, "It's doable that Riley will be removed from this shelter."

Satellite asks, "But where will he stay if he ever gets out of jail?"

Again, August replies with a sigh, "We don't know yet."

I instantly answer to them, "He told me before that he's going to live with his friends. He also called this shelter a shithole." I can't believe I cursed right in front of Jade and August. I regret it.

Cloudy adds, "I knew that guy is an inconsiderate asshole." Satellite, Evan and Gavin mutually agree. So did I.

As I mentally summarize everything they said I bring up something very crucial to inform. "Jade, August," The adults look at me, "About the marijuana: Riley said he was going to break into my ex-boyfriend's—well, no longer my ex, we just got back together now—into his house and then plant all of the marijuana into his and his brother's and friends' possessions. Then, he was going to frame them to the police as some kind of revenge."

I can tell by the looks of their faces, everyone seems shocked about Riley's motive.

Satellite brings up by touching my elbow, "Is that him right over there?"

She's pointing to Sonic leaning against his car. I fix my eyes to him. He nods to me from where he is standing. Showing a subtle smile on my façade, I answer, "Yes." Then, I gesture Sonic to come closer to the group.

Sonic strolls from his car to me. I hold him by the arm. I begin the proper introduction; I introduced Sonic to everyone in the shelter. They all send their greetings to one another. The blue hedgehog adds how caring they are to me as a comment. They all thank him. I then told them that while I was running away from Riley, I ran all the way to my old house and after realizing that my dad isn't there anymore, Sonic came to help me. I didn't want to bring up the part that we made love, so all I said was that he brought me into his safety inside his car until the storm clears up.

Jade tells Sonic, "What you did was very dependable."

Sonic modestly answers, "She went through a lot. I wanted to do what's best for her."

I smile at his comment. He did the same to me. Afterwards, Sonic makes eye contact with the shelter residents. "Promise me you'll take good care of her, okay?"

"We will," Evan answers, "We promise."

Before he leaves, Sonic gives me a hug and a kiss and I managed to reciprocate. He tells me, "I guess—I'll see you around, Ames."

Ames. Now, I don't mind him calling me the pet name. "I'll see you later."

Sonic faces to his car and he's about to stroll back.

"Sonic, before you leave," he turns around and then fixes his eyes on Jade. She says to him with a warming smile, "If you like, you may feel free to visit Amy any time you want."

I feel some joy within me when hearing that. I can also sense Sonic feeling the same. "I would like that."

Lastly, Sonic waves his last goodbye for the day to me and he goes into his car. He starts the ignition and he drives off. I watch him until he goes into the distance. Then, the adults urge us to come back inside. We all did so.

I hope that somewhere in the future:

Riley will be gone and out of my life for good.

All I want throughout my stay in the shelter is to be out with Riley and in with Sonic.


	23. Choosing

Choosing

It's been months already. Time has been flying fast.

Sonic, as promised, has been visiting me in the shelter. He got to know the rest of the residents more during his visits, even Jade and August. Evan Skye, Gavin Snow, Satellite Nova and Cloudy Mist all told him stories about their own sad stories of why they ended up here: Evan is gay and he was disowned by his homophobic parents; Gavin witness the trauma between his abusive father and his dead mother which led to his silence; Satellite ran away from her foster parents and became pregnant from prostitution whereas she gave herself an abortion; and Cloudy ran away from her drug addict mother to find her estranged father only to find out he wanted nothing to do with her and she survived her suicide attempt. All of which Sonic remarks with sympathy and apologies with what they have gone through.

As for Riley—none of us had heard from him for months. All of his stuff was sent away to him and he never returned. It's assumed that either he got arrested or he chose to live with his friends he knew outside of the shelter. Whatever is it—all of us are glad that he's not with us anymore. Apparently, the kids probably had enough of Riley's deviant and violent behavior when he first moved in.

Also, I'm still relieved that Riley failed to perform his vengeance against Sonic and his housemates with the framed marijuana possession. None of the five are caught or arrested. Sonic instantly called one of his housemates about this and they were able to stop Riley before he breaks into their house.

Getting back to me and Sonic—there was this surprise he, his brother and his friends have planned for me. All I remembered about a month ago is that he drove me to his place and he had me blindfolded. With the help of Shadow, Silver, Manic and Scourge, I was led into the house. By the time they removed the blindfold, the next thing I saw was the extra bedroom in the house—for me. I was surprised all right.

I guess Sonic was really serious about wanting me to move in as soon as I turn eighteen. They got permission from Sonia—Sonic's and Manic's triplet sister—and she agreed to give her bedroom to me since she won't be living with them anymore (Sonia is already married to her fiancé by the way). It may be early but they wanted to at least prepare for it anyway.

When I was gazing at my new future bedroom, it is designed just the way I wanted: off-pink walls, flowers by my side, my old childhood stuffed animals—and a new jumbo stuffed giraffe they got me and then named it Mr. Polka Dot to keep me more company—everything that was previously from my old house is now in Sonic's house. I was really elated that everything is still there. I just couldn't figure out how in the world they got it all in there without letting me know. That's doesn't even matter; just as long as it's keeping me elated.

Within these passed months are getting better by the second. My new friends are there for me, Sonic and the guys are there for me, even Jade and August are there for me. I'm finally away from Lauren though I still feel sad about what happened to my Dad. Aside with that, I'm perfectly away from Riley now that he's no longer living here. I may not know about my old friends Cream, Blaze, Rouge, Tikal, Mina and Rosy. We may not have spoken to each other since we first ran into one another by the 7-Eleven during the incident albeit I may have a new chance with them. It may not be now, but maybe someday when I'm truly ready to start fresh and new with them.

Right now, I just want to forget all the trouble in the past—and celebrate my 18th birthday.

My birthday party is taking place in the shelter. Satellite and Cloudy both baked a cake for me and they knew my favorite flavor: red velvet. They did a really good job on the cake and they knew to put vanilla frosting instead of the typical cream cheese kind (I hate cream cheese). Both Evan and Gavin did the decorations with pink balloons, pink and white streamers, glitter, and a banner that says "Happy 18th Birthday, Amy Rose." The music plays my favorite rock music: Evanescence, Within Temptation, Linkin Park and other solo rock singers, like Lavigne and Lovato.

Also, what's a perfect party without Sonic? Jade and August happily invited him over so he could spend some time with me. They even allowed Sonic to bring over Manic, Shadow, Scourge and Silver to the party; that way, it'll be a perfect time for them to know my new friends.

While Lavigne's song "Mobile" plays in the background, every guest and resident in the shelter are having conversations with one another. I am standing by the table where there are multiple appetizers, entrees, snacks and sodas. I take one of the paper plates and start filling it up with one of everything in the menu. I fill it with smoked salmon, Caesar salad, sushi and sashimi, potato puffs, and shrimp. There are a lot more foods on the table but I want to start off with these first. My plate is nearly breaking from the weight of the hors d'oeuvres and main courses, so I added an extra plate underneath it to avert it from breaking. I then set it on the table for a moment to pour myself a drink. I take one of the translucent pink plastic cups from its stack—the cups are in different colors—and then unscrew the cap from the soda bottle. I pour the bubbly drink into the cup before closing it and I finally take my food into my hands. I begin to eat everything from my double-plate.

"Hungry there?" Sonic—wearing a navy blue hoodie and jeans—stands beside me with a smirk on his face. In his hand is a blue plastic cup with his name written on it. He takes a sip from his soda.

I pause for a minute to make eye contact with him. With my mouth full, all I did was nod in a humorous way. Sonic laughs at the reaction and it's making me giggle, though I remain careful not to choke on my food.

As he gives me time to chew my food, Sonic says, "You're so cute."

I swallow and I return the eye contact with him. "Sorry, I guess I never knew my own appetite." I then take my plastic fork and start stacking it with shrimp and salmon. "Have you tried the smoked salmon? It's so good." I take a bite of the seafood.

Sonic answers as he takes one of the potato puffs from the table, "It's okay. I'm not a fan of seafood honestly. I still prefer meat. You still know that chili dogs are my favorite?"

"Of course." I stab my fork on the sashimi next.

"That's an awful lot of seafood." Sonic says.

"I decided to go pescetarian on my birthday."

"Really?" Sonic takes a bite of his potato puff.

"Only for one day. I just want to eat a lot of fish instead of meat. Not sure if I really want to be pescetarian for the rest of my life though because I still like steak despite meat makes me a little sick now."

Sonic gave an understanding nod, "I see."

I resume my eating when our conversation is over for the next several moments. My appetite abruptly becomes more than just eating piece by piece. Using my fork, I wrap one of the potato puffs into the smoked salmon like a blanket and I stuff the whole thing into my mouth. Afterwards, I stack the shrimp and raw fish onto my fork and I eat them as well.

"Don't you want some soy sauce or cocktail sauce with that?" Sonic asks as he dips one of the shrimp into the cocktail sauce before eating it.

I take a minute of chewing and then I swallow. "Nah, I'm fine."

I start eating whatever if left on my plate. Within minutes, I'm already full and the plate is completely clean and empty. I set it aside on the table and I drink whatever soda is left on my cup. Nature calls already.

"Hang on, Sonic," I tell him as I set my cup on the table next to my empty plate, "I need to use the bathroom."

"Take your time, Ames," Sonic remarks as he takes some more shrimp. I smile when he called me by the nickname.

Amid the sounds of incoherent conversations from everyone in the shelter and Linkin Park's "Lost in the Echo" playing loudly, I make my way into the bathroom. Once I closed the door, I go over to the sinks, lean myself against one of them and I gaze at myself in one of the mirrors. Something else begins to interfere with me. I begin to recall some déjà vu.

I may not have any mood swings or morning sickness though my appetite seems—off at this point. I know it's not enough to tell if it's possible again but just to make sure…

I go to one of the cabinets in the bathroom where it's filled with feminine care products and pregnancy tests. I open one box and I take out one of the pregnancy tests out of the package. I read the instructions carefully. I then go into one of the bathroom stalls before closing it.

Minutes after I empty myself out, I sit on the toilet and I wait for the results to show up. I stare at the test with my fingertips grasping on both sides.

"Please be negative, please be negative," I say to myself in hope.

I continue to wait and wait. It seems like forever even though it's only been a minute. After sixty seconds of waiting, the results appear on the tiny screen. I read it—and my eyes are in shock.

"No…" I say to myself. "No, it can't be."

I'm in disbelief when the pregnancy test came positive. I don't know how to tell Sonic about this. The reason why is because Riley and I made love while we were drunk for the first time when we were in his apartment. That was before I made love with Sonic for the first time. If I tell Sonic about me and Riley being intimate while intoxicated without his knowledge, then he'll kick my ass and never speak to me again.

Now—I'm perplexed. What if Sonic is not the father? What if the baby's father is someone who breaks laws and then goes to jail? What's going to happen to both Sonic and Riley if I come clean to the two of them and then tell them I'm pregnant again?

"Okay, everyone! Time for cake!" I hear Jade calling out from behind the closed bathroom door and the closed stall.

I may not know what to do at this time. Maybe I'll get my mind off those thoughts for now as soon as I eat my cake. I'm craving for the red velvet anyway.

~~X~~

With the cake done followed by another two hours of chatting and eating before the party ends, Sonic agreed to take me out for a stroll around the outdoors. I thought this would be the right time. As I'm holding hands with Sonic, we begin to walk on the pathway where there are trees, bushes and flowers by the sides.

"So Ames?" Sonic begins the conversation while gazing at the scenery. "What's it already like to be finally eighteen?"

I shrug. "It's okay, I guess. I still don't feel that much change yet but I will eventually."

"Are you still thinking about moving in with me?"

"Well, honestly—I want some more time on that." I said it with integrity.

"Take all the time you need. I won't pressure you."

For the next minutes, we begin to talk about certain topics. We then came by a bench on the side of the pathway. We decided to take a seat and enjoy the peaceful scenery as we resume our conversation. What Sonic doesn't know is that I have the positive pregnancy test in one of my back pockets.

"Sonic, there's something that I have to tell you—and it's important." I say to him.

"What is it?" Sonic answers. By examining his facial expression, I can tell that he's concerned because I sounded worried on my last statement.

Gathering up my audacity, I take the pregnancy test from my back pocket. I nervously hold it into my hands. Sonic looks down.

"Is that—"

"I took it while I was in the bathroom—and it came out positive." I was timid when I said it.

I'm waiting for his reaction. All Sonic said was silence and his eyes are filled with bewilderment.

"You mean…"

"Yes, Sonic. I guess I am pregnant."

Then, I hear him gasp happily. Sonic says, "I'm not sure we have an extra room for the baby but I guess we can add a crib into your bedroom. I know this is weird but while we first dated—I always wanted to have a baby with you." He blushes at the last part in embarrassment. He continues, "I guess my dream came true after all. I'm finally going to be a father."

I can't believe he said that so soon. "That's the thing, Sonic."

Sonic's excitement is gone when he knows that it's more serious than he expected. "What do you mean?"

I take a deep breath, "There's more to that. And this is the most important part of this. I don't know how to tell you this."

"What is it? You can tell me." Sonic wraps his arm around me in comfort.

"Amy Rose." Out of nowhere, I hear a familiar voice calling my name from beside me. Apparently Sonic heard it as well.

Reluctantly, I look over to the side to see who said my name. Underneath one of the trees—is Riley. Riley is wearing casual clothing and he's holding a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Instead of his typical aggressive look on his façade, he's showing some tenderness. This is so unexpected.

I can feel Sonic removing his arm off me and he gets up from the bench. Very coldly, he tells him, "What do you want?"

Before he does any possible damage, I get up from the bench as well and I tenderly put my hand up to his chest level to avert him from coming near him. Riley didn't react or anything.

"Riley, what are you doing here? And where have you been all these passed months?" I ask him.

Riley informs me about his whereabouts after getting arrested and then bailed out of jail by the help of his friends. He then says to me, "I heard that your birthday is today—and I thought I give you something as a gift." He hands me the flowers. "It's also an apology of the way I treated you. And I want to start all over again." He pauses for a moment, "Amy Rose—will you forgive me?"

"Amy, no," Sonic cuts in with warmth and the same amount of tenderness as Riley. "Please don't. We already made a promise to be together."

Then Riley says, "Amy, if you forgive me. I promise to be a better person. I'll stay out of trouble, I'll stop drinking, I'll quit drugs, anything. I'll do anything for you to keep you happy and safe."

Amid the silence we're now in, I stare at the pregnancy test in my hands as I thought about Sonic and Riley.

"Ames," Sonic adds, "You just said you have something more crucial to say. What is it you were about to tell me?"

Now, I'm torn in between the two again. I think about it over as I continue to stare at the pregnancy test. Sonic was the one who I was with first and he was the one who saved my life more than Riley. Sonic did showed more passion towards me and Riley didn't. But for Riley: sure he has done a lot of terrible shit and he revealed that he's nothing but a player. But the way he sounded, he was all apologetic and sincere. I can't tell if he's faking it or telling the truth though his sincerity is about to manipulate me.

I may be torn into two, though it's this whole baby thing that's interfering with me the most. What would the two of them say or do if I tell them that one of them might be the father of my baby? Will they fight again? Will they kill me? Who knows?

"Amy?"

"Amy?"

Sonic and Riley both say my name in a different time by one second.

The choice is hard to make. All I know is that if I choose one guy over the other—there is no turning back.


	24. Staying

**Here it is! The Last Chapter! :D**

 **I know I said this many times back in DA, but I just want to thank the independent movie "Gimme Shelter" starred by Vanessa Hudgens for inspiring me to write this story. :D**

 **Enjoy it while you can!**

 **All Sonic characters belong to SEGA**

* * *

Staying

It may be an emotional goodbye to everyone in the shelter, but the goodbye is never forever. I can still visit them whenever I feel like it. And of course, they are always welcome to see my first baby. I even received baby gifts from each and every one of them. Jade, August, Evan, Gavin, Satellite and Cloudy have new members joining into their shelter. I may not know who they are, though I am willing to tell them my story if I ever get the chance.

It's more than just telling everyone my entire homeless story in person. I never told anyone about this but while I was living in the shelter from the first day I entered, I've been writing entries about everything that has happened from the very start of this story's chapter. I turned my entries into a published book; a memoir about all the struggles I went through as a homeless runaway youth, a rape victim and a child abuse victim. I even wrote about my mom Emma Rosaline's death, my father Aaron's neglect and karma, my sister Emily Violet who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome before my birth that I never knew until Dad told me, my stepmother Lauren's arrest for her abuse and attempted murder on me, me losing my old friends, and everyone else back at the shelter. I even included my previous incidents with Sonic and Riley.

Here I am, two years later, living in a beautiful home, sitting on the rocking chair in the baby nursery, reading my own best-selling memoir and watching over my daughter, Lavender Rose Sparkle. With the pacifier in her mouth, my little purple-furred baby-me is sleeping in her crib.

When my book is done and holding it into my arms, I get up from the chair and I go to the crib to get a better look of Lavender. She's lying on her supine position with her head facing towards one side and the pacifier is still intact to her tiny mouth. She's wearing a pink onesie and a pair of white booties. I smile warmly when I glance at her.

Then, Lavender apparently wakes up; she opens her green eyes and she fixes her eyes towards me. She lets out a coo.

"Did you enjoy your nap?" I lovingly whisper to her.

"Bah," Lavender responds with coos through her pacifier, which is her own way of saying yes.

I touch her little hand and she grasps onto my finger. I giggle.

I tell her, gently letting go, "You are such a lucky girl, Lavender Rose Sparkle. You have a mother who survived through everything. She wrote a book." I show her the book in my arm, "She became a best-selling memoirist. And—she is happily engaged to the best hedgehog ever who happens to be your daddy."

Lavender coos again.

Without knowing, someone wraps his arms around me from behind. I smile some more as I grasp my free arm around his. I look up to make eye contact with him.

I say to him, "I'm just glad that you're the perfect father for her. I wouldn't have done it all if it weren't for you. Without you, I wouldn't be here to become strong and successful—and then live in a new life with the best gift I ever had."

Our arms drop tenderly as I turn around to make full eye contact with my fiancé—and the biological father of Lavender Rose…

Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic remarks, "And I'm just glad that I still have the best girl I ever had in my life." He then kisses me on the lips. "I love you, Amy Rose." I return the message.

Afterwards, Sonic gets closer to the crib. He takes his arms inside to pick Lavender up and then carry her into his arms. She coos when she sees her daddy.

"And I love you, too, Lavender Rose." He tells her. Lavender giggles.

We go to the dresser where I store my personal memento on top: a jade bracelet from Jade the Panda, a picture frame of me and my new friends—minus Riley, who is forever out of my life—back at the shelter, and my harmonica I used earlier during my runaway. It was given to me by my mother, so now I'm passing the tiny instrument along to my daughter when she gets older.

I place my memoir, laying it flat, on top of the dresser to add to the memento. I stare at its title.

"No turning back?" Sonic says with warmth.

"No turning back," I reply. And that is the title.

We're both right. As long as I have a place to permanently stay with someone I truly love—there is no need for me to turn around and go back to where I came from.


End file.
